George Tomlinson (British politician)

For the bishop, see George Tomlinson (bishop). For the Canadian politician, see George Henry Tomlinson Jr.

The Right Honourable George Tomlinson MP
Minister of Education
In office 7 February 1947 – 26 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Ellen Wilkinson
Succeeded by	Florence Horsbrugh
Minister of Works
In office August 1945 – February 1947
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Duncan Sandys
Succeeded by	Charles Key
Member of Parliament for Farnworth
In office 1938–1952
Preceded by	Guy Rowson
Succeeded by	Ernest Thornton
Personal details
Born	(1890-03-21)21 March 1890 Rishton, Lancashire
Died	22 September 1952(1952-09-22) (aged 62) Manor House Hospital, Golders Green, London
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Ethel, née Pursell (m. 1914)
Children	One daughter

George Tomlinson (21 March 1890 – 22 September 1952) was a British Labour Party politician.

Biography

George Tomlinson was born at 55 Fielding Street in Rishton, Lancashire, the son of John Tomlinson, a cotton weaver, and his wife Alice, née Varley. He was educated in Rishton at Wesleyan Elementary School.

At the age of 12 he took work as weaver at a cotton mill, working half-time the first year before becoming a full-timer. In 1912 he was elected president of the Rishton district of the Amalgamated Weavers' Association.

Tomlinson married the cotton weaver Ethel Pursell on 4 September 1914 and together they had a daughter.

He was a conscientious objector in the First World War, working on the land for three years.

He was elected Member of Parliament for the Farnworth constituency in Lancashire at a by-election in 1938 and held the seat until his death in 1952, aged 62. He was joint Parliamentary Secretary under Ernest Bevin in the Ministry of Labour and National Service from February 1941 to May 1945 in Winston Churchill's wartime Coalition Government. In Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government he was Minister of Works, August 1945 – February 1947, and Minister of Education, February 1947 – October 1951, following the death of Ellen Wilkinson.

In 1944 Tomlinson was a British delegate at the International Labour Conference held at Philadelphia in the United States.

A biography of Tomlinson written by Fred Blackburn, a fellow Labour politician and Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde, was published by Heinemann in 1954. The biography, which features a foreword by Clement Attlee, is largely based on talks Blackburn had with Tomlinson before his death.

The George Tomlinson School, which opened in Kearsley the year following his death, was named in his memory. The school converted to academy status in 2010 and was renamed Kearsley Academy.

References

Bibliography

• Mitchell, Andrew (1995). "Tomlinson, George". In Lane, A. Thomas (ed.). Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders. Vol. 2, M–Z. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 970. ISBN 0-313-29900-5.

Further reading

• Blackburn, Fred (1954). George Tomlinson: A Biography. London: Heinemann.
• Dean, D. W. (1986). "Planning for a postwar generation: Ellen Wilkinson and George Tomlinson at the Ministry of Education, 1945–51". History of Education. 15 (2). The History of Education Society: 95–117. doi:10.1080/0046760860150204.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Tomlinson
• Newspaper clippings about George Tomlinson in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW