Thomas was the third son of Richard and Elizabeth Sandercock. He was born on 1 April 1844 in the hamlet of St Thomas Street Launceston Cornwall. The 1851 Census in Launceston mentions that Thomas, aged 7 was a scholar in that year; there would have been a school in the parish of St Thomas that he attended. He was 9 years of age when he came out to South Australia on the ‘California’. His parents may have wanted him to continue his education after they had settled at ‘Berry Hill’, but there is no record of a school in the area before 1855. (His neighbours the Moores had children the same age as Thomas and his brothers and sisters so there was possibly a private school in one of the homes in Kenton Valley.)

Nothing is known of Thomas’s movements until 1872 when he was 28. The S.A. Directory for that year lists Thomas as a farmer at Pinkerton Plains, south-west of Hamley Bridge. His sister and brother in-law Mary Ann and Thomas Gregory were in the district at this time, at Stockyard Creek, but it is not known whether Thomas Sandercock was working with his brother-in-law. He remained at Pinkerton Plains until at least 1875, according to the Directory, and reappears as a farmer at Mannanarie in the mid-north in 1877. The previous year Thomas had married Sarah Anthony White, daughter of John White and Mary Ann, nee Anthony at Belalie (nee Mannanarie) on 3 September, 1876. A John White, farmer of Belalie, and Irenea Miller, (Sarah’s sister) were the witnesses and the Rev. Wm. H. Rofe officiated at the marriage, celebrated at the house in Belalie of Irenea and John Miller. Thomas Sandercock was 32 and Sarah 28 years of age.

Sarah Anthony White was born on 2 June 1847 at Perch Wood, Ashprington, in Devon. Her birth certificate mentions her father’s occupation as ‘Maltster’ and shows her mother Mary Ann could write her own name. It is not known when exactly the White family emigrated to South Australia, but Sarah was about 4 years of age when they left Devon. The ‘Register’ newspaper reported the arrival of a family named White (husband, wife and 5 children) on the ship ‘Rienzi’, in its issue for 17 January 1852. This possibly refers to Sarah’s family.

In 1877 a son Edmund was born to Thomas and Sarah at Mannanarie, and two years later their second son Arthur was born there. ln 1879, Thomas paid Seven Hundred and Ninety Five pounds Twelve shillings for 356 acres of land in Section 50, Hundred of Mannanarie, County of Dalhousie This land was situated a little west of the town of Mannanarie and north of Jamestown. Albert William Sandercock, a younger brother of Thomas, had bought land Just north of Mannanarie in 1878, but two brothers worked independently of each other.

The farming land north of Clare had been opened up for settlement following the Waste Lands Amendment Act of 1869 - also known as the Strangways Act - which allowed land to be bought on credit for the first time in specially selected localities considered suitable for cultivation and called ‘Agricultural Areas’. This replaced the concept of ‘cash down’ for 80-acre sections with credit sales of large blocks of land up to 320 acres in size. The successful bidder paid 20% down and the balance in 4 years. The advent of the railway in these northern areas got the harvest to the ports. There were some excellent harvests, except for the 1872 season, and prosperity helped to develop the Areas around Port Pirie, Port Broughton and Jamestown (the last including Mannanarie). In 1872 the deposit of 20% was halved and the credit extended to 6 years. The railway between Port Pirie and Jamestown - the richest wheatgrowing land of all, in this area -  was laid in 1878.

Thomas Sandercock sold his land at Mannanarie to Wilhelm Gustav Bradtke in 1880, though the Sandercocks did not move away until some time in 1881. In that year Sarah gave birth to their third son Herbert at Pinda, near Orroroo and north of their old home at Mannanarie. Thomas later bought 501 acres in Section 16, Hundred of Pinda, County of Frome, on 18 April, 1884, for which he paid Five Hundred and One Pounds. it was leased to a John Hart for 10 years from 1887 to 1897, and finally sold in 1908, 23 years after the Sandercocks had left Pinda and gone to live near Gawler.

The Sandercocks’ fourth son Gilbert was born at Pinda in 1884. A daughter Ada May was born in August of 1886, when Thomas and Sarah were living at Queen Street, Gawler South. Thomas had bought 160 acres on Sections 574 and 575, Hundred of Nuriootpa, County of Light, at the end of 1885, and though he still retained an interest in his land at Pinda, the family had come south to Gawler for some reason. The 160 acres were leased out for 5 years, and in the meantime Thomas rented a house at Queen Street, Gawler South, for his family to live in. The move was possibly made from Pinda to enable his sons to get a better education than would have been available in the northern wheatlands area. in November of 1888 Thomas and Sarah moved to a farm of 223 acres on the eastern edge of Gawler, (Section 3044, Hundred of Barossa) where they lived until their deaths.

None of the five children of Thomas and Sarah Sandercock married. The family maintained a strict reserve with their relations and trusted strangers more. There seemed to be a tendency towards meanness and the brothers Edmund, Arthur and Gilbert soon found the farm was too small to work together. They evidently could not agree on the running of the farm and there developed considerable friction between them. Arthur went over to Cleve, on Eyre Peninsula, in 1909 and worked his own farm there. About this time the eldest son Edmund left Gawler and his family did not know where he was living for several years. Herbert and Gilbert stayed on the farm until Herbert enlisted in the 11^th Infantry Battalion and went away to the First World War. He was killed in France in 1917. The previous year both Thomas and his son Edmund died. Edmund had been admitted to the Parkside Mental Hospital where he died aged 38 years.

Thomas Sandercock went blind in his last years. He died in the Gawler Hospital on 22 August, 1916, 2 months after the death of Edmund, of a cerebral Haemorrhage. He was 72 years of age. He was buried at the Willaston cemetery, north of Gawler. Thomas had appointed his sons Arthur and Herbert as his executors, and this caused further friction between Arthur and his younger brother Gilbert, who was still at home on the farm. The estate of Thomas Sandercock was reckoned to be worth Three Thousand Pounds at his death, and under the terms of his will passed to his widow Sarah, to be divided amongst her living children on her death. The daughter Ada left the farm to work, but when her mother became ill she returned home to care for her. It is said that Sarah would have liked to visit her sister lrenea Miller but her children Gilbert and Ada prevented her from doing so - ‘they may want help,’ she was often told. At the_age of 81 and weakened by a long and hard life not without its share of bitter disappointments, Sarah died at the farm on 18 February, 1929. She was buried at Willaston with Thomas.