Sir Thomas was clearly a man with a good sense of humour. At one of the School Speech Days, he read out the famous letter from a bricklayer who, after working late at a building site, was begging leave of absence following an accident involving a rope hoist and a barrel full of bricks ("...halfway up, I met the barrel coming down..." outbursts of laughter "...I must have lost my presence of mind, for I let go of the line..." great hysterics). I thought Sir Thomas had written a superb piece of comical literature until, later in life, I heard the original: a recording of Gerard Hoffnung delivering the same piece at an Oxford Union Dinner in 1958. The original recording can be heard by clicking here.

Sometime in the mid to late 50's, the inmates of Southfields House went on an outing to the estate of Sir Thomas in Shillingstone, Dorset. He had a pig farm on this estate, and on it he ran a narrow-gauge railway on which we all had a ride, although normally it earned its keep by transporting pig-food and associated by-products.

He also showed us the large country house in which he & his family lived. One very noticeable oddity was that in one panel of the door to the dining room there was a hole, about an inch in diameter, around which the wood was rather split. This damaged panel was preserved for posterity by two pieces of perspex, about 8" by 10", one each side of the door. The following explanation was given by Sir Thomas:

During the latter stages of a dinner party at the house, it was debated whether or not it would be possible for a candle to pass through a piece of wood without being crushed.

Sir Thomas believed it could be done. He fetched a 12-bore shotgun, and prepared a cartridge by removing the lead shot, leaving the powder intact. He loaded the gun with the candle first, followed by the cartridge. Aiming the gun at the dining room door, he pulled the trigger. The candle went clean through the door, as proved by the neat hole. It is not recorded where the candle ended up, nor what further damage it may have caused.