Thomas primarily worked at St Paul's Church, Brighton as organist and choirmaster and later moved onto a position as music master at Highgate School in London.

[1] On 27 February 1872 his hymn O Thou Our Souls was chosen to be performed at St. Paul's Cathedral during a thanksgiving service for the recover of then Prince of Wales Edward VII.

On 5 October 1898 he married Sarah Susannah Nicholson (Denton), a widower at the Wicker Parish church.

Their son, also Herbert Antcliffe, was a musicologist who edited Staniforth's Rondino Grazioso for piano, published by J H Larway in 1910.

[5] Hymn Tune: Jerusalem, played by Peter Tylor, organ of the Holy Trinity Church, St Austell