[2] Thomas came to Australia, visiting the Victorian goldfields in 1863 with a brother,[1] but returned to England a year later and worked at his trade of stonemason.
He dropped his father's surname by the time of his marriage to Jane Harriett Strew on 21 November 1869.
[1] Spencer was elected vice-president of the Stonemasons' Society of London, and assisted its president Henry Broadhurst in the settlement of industrial disputes.
From 1907 to 1911 he presided over many wages boards, and his experience and sense of justice enabled him to do valuable work.
This was followed by Budgeree Ballads (1908), reprinted under the title "How Doherty Died" (1910), and four volumes of prose humorous sketches, The Surprising Adventures of Mrs Bridget McSweeney (1906), A Spring Cleaning and Other Stories (1908), The Haunted Shanty and other Stories (1910), and That Droll Lady (1911).