G. N. W. Thomas

George Nathaniel William Thomas (23 August 1873 – 9 February 1958) was an English medical doctor, barrister and anti-vivisection activist.

Career

Thomas was born in Dartmouth. He was educated at Taunton School and obtained his M.B. from Edinburgh University. Thomas worked in Cardiff before WW1 as a member of the Cardiff City Council and was chairman of the Cardiff Corporation Food and Fuel Committee during the war. He was a medical officer at Wilts County Mental Hospital in Devizes from 1922 to 1938. He retired in 1938 and returned to Cardiff. Thomas was described as "staunchly philosemitic" as he was known to have spoken in defence of Jews at the pulpit.

Thomas died on 9 February 1958 in Penarth. He was buried at Trellech Cemetery.

Anti-vivisection

Thomas was an anti-vivisectionist. He was a speaker for the Cardiff branch of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, commenting that "in long drawn out agony" animal experiments were cruel and unnecessary. Thomas argued that the greatest advances from medical science such as discoveries of anaesthetics, anti-septic surgery, radium and treatments of malaria and yellow fever came from scientific experiments without cruelty to animals.

He was an opponent of blood sports. In 1927, he wrote a letter to the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports commenting that "blood sports are atrociously cruel and unfair to the animal, and degrading to those who take part in them". Thomas was an honorary member of the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society.

Selected publications