| Birth Date: | 4 January 1927 |
| Death Date: | 25 August 2011 age: 84 |
| Nationality: | English |
| Occupation: | Author of children's fiction |
| Notable Works: | The Runaways |
| Awards: | Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (1988) |
| Birth Place: | Wellington, Somerset, England |
Ruth Thomas (4 January 1927 - 25 August 2011) was an English author of children's fiction. For her first novel, The Runaways, she won the 1988 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, an annual book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.
Thomas was born in Wellington, Somerset, England, to two primary school teachers.
Her books draw on her own experiences as a primary school teacher, at first in East London; during the 1980s in Kensal Green, north west London.