George Thomas, an Oxford-educated barrister, was a prominent member of South Walian society, besides being a keen and enthusiastic sportsman playing cricket for Glamorganshire in 1875, besides being a member of the South Wales CC, and a very prominent figure in point-to-point circles and hunting.
As far as his county cricketing career was concerned, he made a solitary appearance for Glamorganshire during 1875 in their away match at Brecon and bagged a pair in the game which Breconshire won by an innings. The Club folded at the end of the season so he never got another chance to play at county level.
George had lived initially at Coedriglan and whilst living at the house to the west of Cardiff, he served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1870. A couple of years later he moved with his young family to The Heath, a large manor house and estate to the north of the town which had stables and areas of exercise for his horses. As a leading figure in the world of steeple-chasing, he also organised races on his land, besides training a series of decent point-to-pointers from his own stables.
George also had business interests in coal mining, canals and railway lines, besides the supply of gas and water to Llanbradach and Ystrad Mynach and Tredomen, as well as Pencarrig in Breconshire and other parishes in Monmouthshire and Radnorshire.
Through marriage to the daughter of a member of the Crawshay family of Merthyr Tydfil, George had inherited Ystrad Fawr (or Ystrad House) in Ystrad Mynach, some eighteen miles to the north-east of Cardiff and it was here that his daughter Ellen lived with her husband Morgan Lindsey, another eminent sporting gentlemen in the Victorian era and the first Welshman to play in an FA Cup Final.