[2] An advanced Liberal who favoured the secret ballot and widening of suffrage,[3] he held a seat in the House of Commons from 1852 to 1864, and was a Law Officer of the Crown for four years.
[3] While practising below the bar he published 'An Elementary and Practical Treatise on the Commencement of Personal Actions, and the Proceedings therein to Declaration, in the Superior Courts at Westminster.
[5] In his acceptance speech in July 1861 he called for greater unity in the Liberal Party, and supported British neutrality in the American Civil War.
Promoted to Major on 16 April 1884, he commanded the 5th Dragoon Guards detachment of 31 men at the battle of Abu Klea on 17 January 1885, during which action he was killed.
Thomas entered the 12th Lancers in 1880, [2] and succeeded to the command of the regiment in South Africa, during the Boer War, after the death in action of Lieutenant-Colonel The Earl of Airlie.
He was also subject to a public scandal and divorced his wife, Mabel Louisa Dean Paul, who was very much part of London High Society.