Background
Thomas was the son of James Lewes Thomas, Justice of the Peace, Caeglas, Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, and Anne Louisa, daughter of Commander George Purdon.
Thomas was the son of James Lewes Thomas, Justice of the Peace, Caeglas, Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, and Anne Louisa, daughter of Commander George Purdon.
He was educated at Rugby and Oriel College, Oxford.
He served as First Lord of the Admiralty between 1951 and 1956. Thomas was private secretary to Stanley Baldwin, the leader of the Conservative Party, between 1929 and 1931. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary (Parliamentary Private Secretary) to the Dominions Secretary, James Henry Thomas, between 1932 to 1935, to the Colonial Secretary, Thomas and from 1936 William Ormsby-Gore, between 1935 and 1937, and to the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, between 1937 and Eden"s resignation in 1938.
He entered the government as a Lord of the Treasury under Neville Chamberlain in 1939, an office he retained when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940.
In 1940 he was also Parliamentary Private Secretary to the War Secretary. In 1943 Churchill appointed Thomas Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, which he remained until 1945.
When Churchill returned as Prime Minister in 1951, Thomas was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. He left the House of Commons in 1955 and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Cilcennin, of Hereford in the County of Hereford, in early 1956 (the title was pronounced "Kilkennin").
He continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until September 1956, when he resigned.
In 1957 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, a post he held until his early death three years later.
36th United Kingdom Parliament. 37th United Kingdom Parliament. 38th United Kingdom Parliament.
39th United Kingdom Parliament.
40th United Kingdom Parliament. 41st United Kingdom Parliament]
The latter year he was elected Member of Parliament for Hereford.