Tom was born at Gore Hill in Sydney. His parents were from the town of Selkirk in the borders district of Scotland. His father ran a butchery in Annandale and Tom's early schooling was in the Annandale district. He spent his first secondary year at The Scots School but thereafter pursued his secondary education at Sydney Grammar. He enjoyed cricket and was a keen scholar. After taking his Leaving Certificate in 1933 he proceeded to study science at Sydney University with an interest in organic chemistry. He graduated BSc Hons in 1937. Afterwards Tom worked in Biochemistry at Prince Henry Hospital and later in Plant Chemistry at CSIRO in Canberra.

Tom enlisted in the AIF at the outbreak of World War Two and spent his war service with the 2/6 Australian General Hospital (AGH). For the majority of the time he served as a Sergeant Technician in the pathology laboratory but was later commissioned a Lieutenant in the AIF. The 2/6 AGH, under the leadership of Colonel Rex Money MC, was initially positioned at Gaza Ridge in Palestine. The first desert campaign and the annihilation of the Italian Army had been concluded and the 2/6 AGH was sent to join the ill-fated British and Australian campaign in Greece and was evacuated to Crete on board HMS Phoebe.

On Crete Tom and many of his colleagues narrowly escaped being captured by German paratroopers. Tom and his colleagues were rescued from Crete aboard the New Zealand and taken back to Alexandria. There was much further work at Gaza Ridge caring for casualties of the Syrian campaign. One of the patients with whom Tom was involved was Lieutenant Roden Cutler, later Sir Roden Cutler VC. The hospital was later relocated to Jerusalem - a 5000 bed hospital, mostly under canvas.

This hospital was returned to Australia with the 9th Division which was to participate in the campaigns in New Guinea and the Kokoda Track. The 2/8 AGH located in the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland cared for many of the injured and malaria and scrub typhus infected troops from the New Guinea conflict. The hospital reached 1500 beds mostly in tented wards. Towards the end of the war the hospital was located on the island of Labua in North East Indonesia. Tom made a significant historical contribution to the Australian Army Medical Services with his meticulously researched History of the 2/6th Australian General Hospital, 1940 - 1946 published in 1978.

Tom was granted early release from the AIF and began to study medicine under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme at Sydney University in 1945. He graduated with honours in 1950 and became a junior resident at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Tom was a registrar at Crown Street Women's Hospital from 1951 to 1952 and an RMO at Canberra Community Hospital from 1954 to 1955. During these years he obtained the Diploma of Clinical Pathology from Sydney University. He was a general practitioner in Armidale, NSW from 1955 to 1957 and then a Staff Specialist in Pathology/Haematology at Royal Newcastle Hospital from 1958 to 1964.

Tom was then appointed a Specialist Haematologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) where he served from 1966 until his retirement in 1981, being then made a Consultant in Haematology, under the Director of Haematology, Dr Harry Kronenberg. The haematology team offered a comprehensive range of haematology and blood transfusion services for their patients who came from all over the country. An active registrar training program was available of joint specialist training for the Colleges of Physicians and Pathologists. An active applied haematology research program was also established.

Tom became a Member of the College of Pathologists of Australia in 1963, a Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1974 and a Fellow of the College of Physicians in 1977. He played an active role with the College of Pathologists of Australia in its earlier years, undertaking the duties of Registrar of the Board of Censors from 1966 to 1974. In 1971 he became Deputy Chair of The Board and was Acting Chairman for a period in 1974. He was also a frequent contributor to the scientific meetings as a member of the Haematology Society of Australia and the Australian Society of Blood Transfusion.

In the haematology service at RPA Tom was a tower of strength in the department, in the laboratory, at the microscope and at the bedside. Reliability was his core value in attendance and in duties. To watch him microscopically assess blood films and bone marrow specimens was to observe a master at work. In the laboratory his scientific and organic chemistry background came into its own. He developed an increasing interest in and an ever expanding knowledge of the thalassemias, the haemaglobinopathies and the anaemias in general. He led in the development of the most precise methods for their diagnoses, pursued and documented relevant family histories and elucidated many hitherto "family mysteries" in this area. He was intimately involved with the description and documentation of previously undescribed haemoglobin, for example Hb Camperdown, as well as several intriguing Hb anomalies - Hb Summer Hill, Hb Geelong and Hb Swan River.

In this area he was greatly stimulated by contact and continuing liaison with Professor Henry Lehmann and later with Lehmann's protégé, Professor Robin Carrell of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Tom took some well earned overseas study leave with his family. Apart from visiting Cambridge, he returned to Scotland and also to Greece and Crete to the locations of his war service. He always spoke most fondly of the generosity and loyalty of the Greek people.

Tom married June in 1946 at the Presbyterian Church in Campsie, NSW. They had a daughter, Sue, and a son, also Tom. Tom was an active member of his church, in Pymble and later in Newcastle. He died in Newcastle in March 2006, aged 89. He was caring for his wife until his death. June died some six months later.