Thomas was born April 1900 in Taupiri, a small town on the Waikato River where his father ran a sawmill on the banks of the Mangawhare Stream which is a tributary of the river. He was the sixth child in his family and the fourth son. He was always known as Wal.
When he was seven the family moved to Tamahere where they ran a store and his sister was postmistress. Another seven years passed and they moved to Hamilton and his father died the same year. Thomas left school then and worked with his brothers who ran a bakery in Oxford (now Tirau) for a short time.
He had joined the Central Waikato Electric-Power Board as a clerk by the time he first appeared on the electoral roll in 1922, and would work there for the rest of his life.
In
1926 though, he was twenty-six and had been married for two years. He and his
wife were living with his mother and elder unmarried sister. In January of 1926
they had welcomed their first child.
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