| Other Info | He was knighted in 1955 (London Gazette 9th June 1955). Sir Geoffrey was a very well-known personality in the Midlands, chiefly as an industrialist and a great sportsmen. He was educated at Winchester and Cambridge. He played cricket for Winchester, including in the Eton and Winchester cricket match in which his brother, Colonel F. M. Tomkinson, was also playing in the Eton team.
At Cambridge he was awarded a Rugby blue, played cricket for his college, King's College, and rowed in his college boat.
After gaining a Mechanical Sciences degree at Cambridge he went to Brazil in 1905, cutting himself off from the chance of becoming one of the outstanding cricketers of his day. He did not play again in England until he was 40, but even then he was still a most competent cricketer. In 1927 he turned down the offer to captain Worcestershire, although he played for the County on many occasions.
He served throughout the 1941-18 war in the Regiment, was twice wounded, and returned home as a Lieut-Colonel with the O.B.E. and M.C. In the second World War his firm, Tomkinsons (Lye) Ltd., of which he was the head, turned from making carpets to bullets and blankets. He himself became Principal Recovery Officer for the Ministry of Supply in the Midlands.
He was made a J.P. in 1940 and knighted in 1955. |
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