AustLit

Son of the laundryman for Geelong Grammar School, Corio, Tom Judd was asked at the age of fourteen to help out at a time of a staff shortage. Shortly afterwards he was appointed school porter, a job he held for fifty years. He received little formal education, and considered that most of his education was gleaned from books and from 'keeping my eyes and ears open at Geelong Grammar' (Fifty Years Will Be Long Enough, p. 16).

Tom Judd early discovered a passion for the theatre and play-writing. In this he was encouraged by R. G. Jennings, to whom he took his first attempt at playwriting. He wrote sixteen three-act plays, all but two of which were produced.