Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Thomas Kendrick, fought in the Boer War of 1899-1902 and later as a field intelligence officer in the First World War. Between December 1925 and August 1938, he was M.I.6 ‘station chief’ in Vienna, Austria, his cover story being that he was the Consulate's Passport Officer.

Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938. In August Kendrick was arrested as a spy, was imprisoned but later released and then expelled. In the months before his arrest, Kendrick used his position as Passport Officer to issue a large number of travel permits to Austrian Jews and others seeking to escape Nazi persecution.

During the Second World War, Colonel TJ Kendrick commanded M.I.19, the organisation responsible for interrogating enemy prisoners of war.

Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick died in 1972 aged 90 and is buried in the Municipal Cemetery in Weybridge, Surrey. His wife Norah was interred with him in 1977.