Robert Parkinson Tomlinson (20 May 1881 – 3 June 1943) was a British corn merchant and Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician.

Family and education

Tomlinson was born at Poulton-le-Fylde

Poulton-le-Fylde

Poulton-le-Fylde is a market town in Lancashire, England, situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 18,264. There is evidence of human habitation in the area from 12,000 years ago and several archaeological finds from Roman...

  in Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, the son of William and Agnes Ormond Tomlinson. He was educated at Poulton-le-Fylde Grammar School and Claremont College, Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

. He never married. In religion Tomlinson was a Methodist. He was sometime President of the Methodist Local Preachers Mutual Aid Association and in 1939 he served as Vice-President of Methodist Conference.

Career

Tomlinson set himself up in business and founded Parkinson and Tomlinson, corn and oatmeal millers and seed merchants in the Fylde district. He was regarded as an expert on agricultural questions.

Local politics

Perhaps drawn to Liberalism through his nonconformist religious beliefs, Tomlinson took an early interest in public affairs. At the age of just 24 years he was elected to Poulton-le-Fylde Urban District Council and remained a member until the time of his death. On six occasions he was Chairman of the Council and for thirty years was Chairman of the Finance Committee. He also sat on many other committees.

Other public appointments

Tomlinson served as a Justice of the Peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 in Poulton-le-Fylde. He was sometime Vice-Chairman of Fylde Water Board, Chairman of Preston, Garstang

Garstang

Garstang is a town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is ten miles north-northwest of the city of Preston and eleven miles south of Lancaster, and had a total resident population of 4,074 in 2001....

 and Fylde Joint Hospital Board, a member of Lancashire County Licensing Committee, a member of the Quarter Sessions

Quarter Sessions

The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire...

 Appeals Committee, and a member of the Lancashire Agricultural Wages Board

Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act 1924

The Agricultural Wages Act 1924 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom passed in 1924 by the minority Labour Government....

.

Parliamentary candidate

First stood for Parliament at the 1923 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1923

-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

 as Liberal candidate in Fylde

Fylde (UK Parliament constituency)

Fylde is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...

 in Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 but was beaten by 3,280 votes in a straight fight with sitting Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 MP Lord Stanley

Edward Stanley, Lord Stanley (1894-1938)

Edward Montagu Cavendish Stanley, Lord Stanley PC, MC was a British Conservative politician. The eldest son of the 17th Earl of Derby, he held minor political office before being appointed Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in 1938, sitting in the cabinet alongside his brother Oliver Stanley...

.

Lancaster by-election, 1929

He was next a candidate at a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 at Lancaster on 9 February 1928 caused by elevation to peerage of Sir Gerald Strickland

Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland

Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland, 6th Count of Catena, GCMG was a Maltese and British politician and peer, who served as Prime Minister of Malta, Governor of the Leeward Islands, Governor of Tasmania, Governor of Western Australia and Governor of New South Wales.-Early...

 Tomlinson won by a majority of 1,829 over his Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

 opponent Herwald Ramsbotham

Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury

Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury GCMG, GCVO, OBE, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician. He was a government minister between 1931 and 1941 and served as Governor-General of Ceylon between 1949 and 1954....

 with Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 in third place. Turnout was 82% And Tomlinson overturned a Conservative majority from the previous election of 4,158.

1929-1935

Tomlinson was unable to hold the seat at the 1929 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1929

-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

 however, with Ramsbotham gaining it for the Conservatives, albeit by the small margin of 437 votes. Tomlinson did not contest the 1931 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1931

The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...

 but did try again in 1935

United Kingdom general election, 1935

The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...

, this time finding himself again in second place although this time behind by 13,578.

External links