Background
He was born in Redditch in Worcestershire to fruit merchant Thomas Davis and Ann Martin.
merchant politician member of the House of Commons of Canada Member of the Senate of Canada
He was born in Redditch in Worcestershire to fruit merchant Thomas Davis and Ann Martin.
The family moved to Glasgow in 1859, where Thomas was educated.
He moved to France at the age of thirteen, but was forced to return to England when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870. From 1871 to 1875 he was a sailor. He then worked as an interpreter in New Caledonia before settling in Sydney as a seaman in 1876.
Closely involved in the union movement, he was secretary of the Federated Seamen's Union in 1886. One of a minority of Labor members to sign the pledge on binding votes, he was re-elected as the member for Sydney-Pyrmont in 1894 and 1895. He retired in 1898 and died in Sydney the following year.