Thomas Ormiston was one of four brothers who enlisted for the war and was the only to survive. Brothers John and Andrew were both killed in action in mid-1918, while David died of an accidental gunshot wound in Amiens in 1919. Ormiston was wounded in August 1918, just prior to the Allies counter-offensive. He had enlisted in August 1915 and been allocated to the 31st Battalion, eventually being given the rank of Driver. Before the counteroffensive, the 31st had only participated in two major battles, at Fromelles in July 1916 where over half the unit were killed, then after a period of rebuilding took part in Polygon Wood in 1917. Ormiston received a gunshot wound in the right thigh leading to evacuation to England, though he managed to return to his unit three weeks before armistice, and finally back to Australia in March 1919.
Before the war he played for Corinthians in the Brisbane senior division. After enlisting, Ormiston played for a Military team from the Enoggera base which also contained players from Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Hearts, Belfast Celtic, Linlithgow Rose, London Athletic and a Scottish team variously called Pemack Blue Bell, or Penweick depending on the newspaper reporting the game. Ormiston returned to soccer after the war, turning out for the AIF team against the visiting ship Renown, and for Corinthians between 1920 and 1923.
He married Kathleen Duffy in 1922. Ormiston passed away in Brisbane in November 1962.