Francis Inigo Thomas [commonly known as Inigo Thomas; and as F. Inigo Thomas] was born in Warmsworth, near Doncaster, Yorkshire, England on 25 December 1865 and was the nephew of the garden designer William Brodrick Thomas (1811-1898). He studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, following which he was articled to George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) and Thomas Garner (1839-1906) in London from 1886 to 1889.
Soon after completing his articles, he set up his own architectural practice and like his uncle, began to specialise in garden design. His designs were influence by a series of study tours he made throughout England and continental Europe. In 1892 he illustrated Formal Gardens in England by Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942). The popularity of the book helped to establish his career as a garden designer and led to a number of important commissions.
Among gardens designed by Thomas were for Barrow Court in, Barrow Gurney, Somerset (1882–96); Athelhampton Hall in Dorset (c.1891 onwards), with Reginald Blomfield; Rotherfield Hall in Rotherfield, East Sussex (1897); Ffynone, near Boncath, Pembrokeshire, Wales (1904); and Chantmarle, a manor house, near Frome St Quintin, Dorset (1910). He designed a war memorial to the Oxfordshire Light Infantry which was unveiled at Bonn Square, Oxford in 1923.
Thomas was also a painter and illustrator. He participated in the second exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery in London in 1889. Between 1891 and 1929 he also exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, and Walker's Gallery in London. In 1891 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (A.R.E.). He was also elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1891.
Thomas illustrated The Formal Garden in England by Reginald Blomfield (London : Macmillian 1892). His address was given as 52, Wimpole Street, London in 1889; and, from c.1902, 2 Mulberry Walk, Church Street, Chelsea, London where he died on 27 March 1950.
Bloomfield, Reginald. The Formal Garden in England, with illustrations by F. Inigo Thomas. London: Macmillan, 1892
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Ottewill, David. The Edwardian Garden. London and New Haven, Conn.; Yale University Press, 1989