1972
(514)
(RETIRED DECORATOR'S MERCHANT)
Born at Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, on the 9th March, 1897. On leaving school he was employed in his family's printing firm.
During the first World War, 1914-1918, he served in the Royal Field Artillery and was severely wounded in battle on the Somme, France, in 1916. After prolonged and extensive surgical treatment in military hospitals for his numerous injuries he was medically discharged from the Army in March, 1917.
After his recovery he joined the staff of a firm of Paint and Varnish Manufacturers at Kingston upon Hull and in 1922 he opened his own business as a Decorator's Merchant in Bradford, Yorkshire.
In 1924 he married Mabel Kitching and took up residence in Ilkley, Yorkshire. He has a son and there are two grandchildren.
Alderman Tomlinson was first elected to the Leicester City Council in June, 1949, as a representative for Wycliffe Ward. He was re-elected to the City Council as a representative for Evington Ward in May, 1955, and again in May, 1964. In 1968 he was appointed High Bailiff of the City of Leicester and was further honoured in 1969 by his elevation to the Aldermanic Benches of the City Council.
Alderman T Tomlinson has served on many of the Council's Committees which include General Purposes, Establishment, Finance, Public Works, Children's, Museums and Libraries, Rating, Transport, Traffic and Markets. He is a former Chairman of the Sewage Works Committee.
Alderman Tomlinson has wide experience of the work of the Water Committee and represents the City Council on the River Dove Water Board, Trent River Authority and the Derwent Valley Water Board. He is a nominative Governor of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity, Leicester, and a Manager of the Charnwood, Mayflower and Evington Valley Primary Schools. He was President of the Leicester Branch of the United Kingdom Commercial Travellers'
Association for eleven years and is a Vice-President of the Leicester Branch of the Anglo-Polish Society.
His Year of Office was marked by visits to the City of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, who visited the works of N. Corah (St. Margarets) Limited, and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester, who opened the Soar Valley Comprehensive School and Community Centre.
The Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Edward Heath, M.P., visited Leicester to see social clubs for the elderly on Wednesday, 27th September, 1972.
Alderman T Tomlinson opened the Gilroes Water Centre of the Leicester Water Department during the year, an honour given to him because of his long and devoted interest in the work of the Water Committee. He also received the Oberburgermeister of Krefeld and a delegation from the City of Krefeld; this was the Oberburgermeister's second visit to Leicester since the formal twinning between Leicester and Krefeld.
He demonstrated his personal interest and admiration for those who give voluntary service to the City by arranging a large Reception in their honour at the De Montfort Hall.
One of the most memorable events in his Year of Office was the Special Luncheon in the City's Art Gallery which he arranged to mark the Silver Wedding Anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, when he invited twenty-five disabled ex-servicemen and twenty-five lady old age pensioners. It is thought he was the only civic leader in the country to mark the Silver Wedding Anniversary in this way and Her Majesty The Queen congratulated him for doing so.
Alderman Tomlinson visited Paris, France, in April, 1973, to open an Exhibition arranged on board a ship moored on the River Seine in support of the Leicester
Jersey Manufacturers and became the first Lord Mayor of Leicester to open an Exhibition in Continental Europe since Britain's entry into the European Economic Community.
The British Association for the Advancement of Science held their meeting in Leicester during his Year of Office and many thousands of scientists from all over the world visited Leicester for the meeting.
He maintained the interest of the Mayoralty in Leicester in the Army by visiting Tiger Company, 4th Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, formerly The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, at Canterbury; he also visited the 9th/12th Royal Lancers, an armoured Regiment with long association with the City and County of Leicester at Detmold, Germany, and the 16th Signal Regiment of the Royal Corps of Signals stationed in Krefeld, Germany.
Parliament passed the Local Government Act, 1972, during his Year of Office. This Act abolishes from 1st April, 1974, the existing division of England (outside London) into Local Government areas and the Councils' which administer those areas. With the coming into force of the Act the City of Leicester will be deprived of its status of a County Borough and will become a District with limited Local Government functions. Some of the main services, particularly education, social services and planning, roads and transportation at strategic level will be administered from that date by the new Leicestershire County Council, and under the new Act Leicester will be represented on the new Leicestershire County Council by thirty-two elected members. The Act also abolishes the historic office of Alderman. Leicester's water supply undertaking and sewage disposal works are to be administered by the new Severn/ Trent Water Authority from the 1st April, 1974, in pursuance of the Water Act, 1973.
Local Government reorganisation made it desirable that Alderman Tomlinson’s Year of Office should terminate earlier than usual and the Annual Meeting was held on 26th April, 1973.
