[1][2] Thomas Rasey served with the Australian army during World War I (1914–1918) after enlisting in Brisbane in September 1916.

Serving in the 42nd Battalion, 11th Brigade, 3rd Division as a signaler of D Company, Rasey became a casualty of gas attacks at Villers-Bretonneux, France, in June 1918.

[4] Actively involved in labour politics, Rasey was a member of the Transport Workers' Union of Queensland serving as both vice-president and President.

As a member of the traditionalist arm of Labor trade union movement and as a committed Roman Catholic, Rasey was associated with the staunchly anti-communist "groupers" during the late 1940s.

The so-called "groupers" were members of the ALP Industrial Groups Committee who were given "a blank cheque in determining how the (Labor Party's) crusade against communism would be fought" during the Cold War.