Background
Thomas was the son of William "Digger" Thomas, the 1923 Sandover Medalist who also played with East Perth.
Thomas was the son of William "Digger" Thomas, the 1923 Sandover Medalist who also played with East Perth.
He played his football across half back and was on a flank in East Perth"s 1936 premiership side. Thomas enlisted in the Australian Army in early 1941, and served with the 13 Field Company during World World War World War II He missed out on participating any deeper in the finals series as he had to return home. Essendon went on to make the 1941 VFL Grand Final, but lost to Carlton.
After eighteen months in Darwin, Thomas was posted to New Britain (in present-day Papua New Guinea).
Having spent three months there, he was sent to a military school Sydney to complete physical training. While in Sydney, Thomas took up football with the Eastern Suburbs Australian Football Club (later the UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs), playing with a number of other interstate football players on military service.
He resumed playing with East Perth after the war and represented Western Australia in two interstate matches against South Australia in 1946. This brought his interstate tally to four, having played twice against Victoria before the war.
Thomas was subsequently stationed in Darwin, and was a member of a West Australian team that defeated a combined South Australia–Victoria side in 1942.