Richard Thomas (5 December 1837 – 28 September 1916) was an English tin plate manufacturer.
He was the eldest son of Richard Thomas (25 Dec 1814-31 Jan 1895), a Somerset shipowner and merchant.
The younger Richard Thomas attended the Wesleyan Collegiate Institute in Taunton before starting work as a clerk in his uncle's draper's shop in Oxford.
Financial problems caused directly by the flooding of Lydbrook Colliery led Richard Thomas to liquidate his company in 1883, but it was relaunched as Richard Thomas & Co. Ltd in 1884, with the financial backing of the Barrow Hematite Steel Company.
By this time, Richard Thomas & Co. Ltd and its associated companies employed over 11,000 in South Wales.