Cecil Walter Thomas [commonly known as Cecil Thomas] was born at 24 Hedley Road, Shepherd's Bush, London, England on 3 March 1885 and was the son of John Thomas, a seal engraver. After training with his father, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London under Edwin Roscoe Mullins, Alfred Turner, Harvard Thomas and Richard Garbe; Heatherley’s School of Fine Art in London; and at Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. He subsequently worked as a sculptor and medal designer.
He served in the Army in World War One and made large relief maps for the Battle of Messines. He was seriously injured during the war.
Following the war he received several commissions to design memorials including the Toc H Memorial for All Hallows by the Tower and a memorial to Archbishop Lord Davidson in Canterbury Cathedral. Among his many other commissions were heraldic decoration for the New York World's Fair in 1939-40, and the Coronation medal of Queen Elizabeth II. He also designed the Great Seals of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, a seal for the British Transport Commission, and numerous commissions from the Royal Mint to design coins and medals. [For a comprehensive account of Thomas's commissions see the entry on him in the Dictionary of National Biography].
Thomas served again in the Army during World War Two, spending three years in the reconnaissance model-making unit in Medmenham, Buckinghamshire.
He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1909 and continued to do so regularly until 1967. He also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, Royal Miniature Society and Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; the Paris Salon; and at the and the National Gallery in Washington, DC. He participated in the exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in London in 1916.
Thomas was elected a member of the Junior Art Workers Guild in 1910; an Associate of the Royal Miniature Society (ARMS) in 1914; a full member of the Royal Miniature Society (RMS) in 1916; a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1921; Master of the Junior Art Workers' Guild in the 1920s; an Associate of the Royal Society of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (ARBS) in 1929; a Fellow of Royal Society of British Sculptors (FRBS) in 1938l and Master of the Art Workers Guild in 1946. He was also a member of the Church Crafts League and the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society. He was awarded a Gold Medal by the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1973.
Thomas was a regular speaker at meetings of the Art Workers Guild and wrote articles on sculpture and the crafts.
His address was given as 2 Kingly Street, Regent Street, London in 1909; 1 Great Pulteney Street, Regent Street, London in 1911 and 1918; 7 Gloucester Terrace, Onslow Gardens, London in 1920 and 1937; and 108 Old Brompton Road, Queen's Gate, London in 1938 and 1976. He died in London on 16 September 1976.