Tom Mellor was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, on 23 October 1914 and studied architecture at the School of Architecture and School of Civic Design at Liverpool University (1932-38) from where he graduated with a first class degree in Architecture and a diploma in Civic Design in 1938.
He subsequently worked for William Holford [later Baron Holford], who was professor of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool; the Liverpool architect Lancelot Keay; and at George Grenfell-Baines' practice in Preston, Lancashire, where he was engaged in the design of industrial buildings and in the planning of Newton Aycliffe New Town in County Durham.
In 1949 Mellow opened his own architectural office in Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, subsequently Tom Mellor & Partners.
In his his obituary of Mellor in the Independent, Alan Powers observed that Mellor's work as an architect "represents a gentle and reasonable modernism', and that he was influenced by the work of contemporary Scandinavian architects, notably Gunnar Asplund, Sven Markelius and Paul Hedqvist.
Projects by him included War Memorial Housing in Lytham St. Annes (1947); a house in Wrea Green, Preston (1953); a house at Lytham St. Annes (1955); the Roman Catholic Church in Lancaster (1959); and Senate House, University of Liverpool (1968). He also designed the library at Lancaster University, the Physics Building [now known as Oliver Lodge Physics Laboratory] at the University of Liverpool, and numerous other public buildings including schools, colleges, universities and churches in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
In addition to his work as an architect, Mellor was also a painter and exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. In 1940 he painted murals for Byrom, a communal restaurant interior and kitchen in Liverpool, designed by Lancelot Keay and W.T. Twiss.
From 1953 to 1960 he served as design director for the Lancashire printed textile firm David Whitehead Ltd. during which time he commissioned work by John Piper, Henry Moore and other leading contemporary artists. He also contributed a number of his own patterns to the company. A photograph of a roller-printed cotton designed by Mellor for D. Whitehead Ltd. is illustrated in 'Decorative Art' 1956-57 (p.74). I
n 1947 Mellor received the Leverhulme Research Fellowship in Civic Design at Liverpool University where he taught for several years. In 1962 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Ill health forced Mellor to retire from architecture in 1967. He died in Minthorpe, Lancashire on 12 December 1994. An exhibition of his work was held at the Lytham Heritage Centre in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire in 2017.