View source for George Tomline (politician)

{{Short description|English politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
'''George Tomline''' (3 March 1813 – 25 August 1889), referred to as '''Colonel Tomline''', was an English politician who served as [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for various constituencies. He was the son of [[William Edward Tomline]] and grandson of [[George Pretyman Tomline]].

==Life==
Tomline was baptised on 1 June 1813 at [[St Margaret's, Westminster|St. Margaret's, Westminster]] by his grandfather the [[George Pretyman Tomline|Bishop of Lincoln]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oasi.org.uk/OPO/GT/GT_baptism.gif|title=George Tomline baptism record}}</ref>

He was educated at [[Eton College]], following which he made a [[Grand Tour]] in Europe mostly travelling in a [[gig (carriage)|gig]].<ref name="esj">{{cite news|title=The late Col. Tomline|work=Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal|date=4 September 1889|page=5}}</ref>

He succeeded to his father's estates, at Riby Grove, [[Lincolnshire]], and [[Orwell Park]], [[Suffolk]], in 1836, and he also inherited through his mother, Frances (''nee'' Amler or Ambler), [[Ford, Shropshire|Ford]] Hall near [[Shrewsbury]], Shropshire.<ref>Not to be confused with Fordhall in same county but near Market Drayton.</ref> He was Colonel of the Royal North Lincolnshire Militia.<ref name=tsas>''Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society'', Series 4, Volume XII (1929-30). Article ''Shrewsbury Members of Parliament'' by Henry T. Weyman.</ref>

He was Member of Parliament for:<ref>Gooding (2003)</ref>
*[[Sudbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Sudbury]] (1840–1841 - as [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]);
*[[Shrewsbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Shrewsbury]] (1841–1847 - as Conservative, alongside [[Benjamin Disraeli]]) and (1852–1868 - as [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]);
*[[Great Grimsby (UK Parliament constituency)|Great Grimsby]] (1868–1874, as Liberal).

In parliament he was well known as an advocate of [[bi-metallism]] in currency and for posting silver bars to successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, demanding the [[Royal Mint]] had a duty to convert them into coinage.<ref name=esj /><ref name=tsas /> While ‘out of office’ between 1847 and 1852 Tomline purchased the Orwell Park estate.

During the [[1880 United Kingdom general election|1880 General Election]] he unsuccessfully contested the [[Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Harwich]] seat. Following the election he raised the [[Henry Tyler (British politician)#Harwich Election Petition Trial (1880)|Harwich Election Petition (1880)]] against his opponent. At the conclusion of the trial Colonel Tomline was found guilty of [[bribery]].

In 1881 he unsuccessfully contested a [[by-election]] in [[North Lincolnshire (UK Parliament constituency)|North Lincolnshire]] as a Liberal.

He was [[High Sheriff of Lincolnshire]] for 1852.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=21287|page=289|date=3 February 1852}}</ref>

He was a keen amateur [[astronomer]] who built an [[observatory]] at [[Orwell Park#Observatory|Orwell Park]].<ref>Goward (2006)</ref><ref name="whiting2006">{{cite journal
   | last = Whiting
   | first = Paul J.
   | title = The Work of John Isaac Plummer at Orwell Park Observatory in the Years 1874 to 1890
   | journal = [[The Antiquarian Astronomer]]
   | volume = 3
   | pages = 95–100
   | publisher = [[Society for the History of Astronomy]]
   | date = 2006
   | bibcode = 2006AntAs...3...95W
   | url = http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2006AntAs...3...95W
   | access-date = 5 November 2015
}}</ref><ref name="report_orwell_obs1889">{{cite journal
   | title = Colonel Tomline's Observatory
   | journal = [[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]]
   | volume = 50
   | number = 4
   | pages = 211–212
   | publisher = [[Royal Astronomical Society]]
   | date = 1890
   | bibcode = 1890MNRAS..50R.211.
   | doi = 10.1093/mnras/50.4.183
| doi-access = free
   }}</ref>
He was founder and chairman of the Felixstowe Railway and Pier Company which built the [[Felixstowe Branch Line]] and established the [[Port of Felixstowe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.portoffelixstowe.co.uk/PUBLICATIONS/JOURNAL/frmhistory.aspx|title=History of the Port|access-date=4 May 2009}}</ref> Tomline Road in [[Ipswich]] which runs parallel to the railway line is named after him.
[[File:Woking Crematorium 2018.jpg|thumb|right|Woking Crematorium in 2018]]
He died, unmarried, from a stroke after a long illness at his London home, Number 1 [[Carlton House Terrace]] on 25 August 1889, aged 76.<ref name=esj2>{{cite news|title=The late Col. Tomline. An Interesting Reminiscence|work=Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal|date=28 August 1889|page=5}}</ref> After a funeral service at [[St Martin's in the Fields]] on 29 August, his body was cremated at [[Woking Crematorium]] and his ashes sent to London.<ref name=esj />

His heir, to whom his estates devolved, was the Rt Hon. Captain [[Ernest George Pretyman]] MP, at various times Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the [[Board of Trade]], and [[Civil Lord of the Admiralty]].<ref>Allen 2005, 98.</ref>

==Tomline Prize==
In 1836, Eton College appointed its first Mathematical Master, Mr Stephen Hawtrey, and Tomline promoted the study of this subject by donating money for the mathematics prize: the first recipient was [[Matthew Piers Watt Boulton]] in 1837.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cust |first1=Lionel |title=A History of Eton College |date=1899 |publisher=Duckworth & Co |location=London |pages=178–179 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofetoncol00custuoft/page/n9/mode/2up}}</ref> The long-standing informal arrangement was formalized in 1854 by a deed in which a sum somewhat in excess of £1000 was granted for the purposes of a scholarship. The prize was open to the whole school and the winner (known as the ''Tomline Prizeman'') received £30 worth of books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catalogue.etoncollege.com/coll-ben-25|title=Eton Collections Online|website=etoncollege.com|language=en|access-date=2021-07-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oasi.org.uk/OPO/GT/GT.php|title=OASI: Tomline|website=oasi.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2017-04-09}}</ref>

Several winners of the Tomline Prize were notable in a mathematical field, including [[Norman Macleod Ferrers]] (1846), [[Philip Herbert Cowell]] (1886), G.H.J. Hurst (1887 - 2nd [[Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|Wrangler]] and Fellow of [[King's College, Cambridge|King's]]), [[John Maynard Keynes]] (1901), [[J. B. S. Haldane]] (1909),  [[Tony Skyrme|T.H.R. Skyrme]] (1939), [[Peter Swinnerton-Dyer]] (1943), [[Robin Milner]] (1952), [[Hodgkin family|Luke Hodgkin]] (1956 - Mathematics, King's College London), John Pryce (1957 - Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Cardiff) and Warren Li (2016 - [[Senior Wrangler]] in 2019).  The prize has been awarded annually as the [[Eton College#Grants and prizes|principal mathematics prize at Eton]] since 1837 (with a hiatus between 1977 and 1987); since 2010, candidates for the prize must write an extended mathematical essay and are called on to defend it ''[[Oral exam|viva voce]]''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Allen, David, 'Victorian Suffolk's Great Eccentric: Colonel George Tomline 1813-1889', ''Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History'' 41, Part 1 (2005), 79–102.
*{{ cite book | title=Orwell Park | author=Bence-Jones, G. | date=1995 | publisher=Electric Ink Ltd }}
*{{ cite book | author=Burke, Sir Bernard | date=1863 | location=London | publisher=Harrison | title=A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland | pages=''p.''1518 | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ni4BAAAAQAAJ | quote=william edward tomline. | access-date=22 August 2007 }}
*{{cite web|title=George Tomline & Relatives |author=Gooding, R. |date=2003 |access-date=22 August 2007 |url=http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Tomline.htm |work=Orwell Astronomical Society |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050802094829/http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Tomline.htm |archive-date=2 August 2005 }} 
*{{ cite web | title=Founding of Orwell Park Observatory | author=Goward, K. J. | date=2006 | access-date=22 August 2007 | url=http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Founding.htm | work=Orwell Astronomical Society |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070630001239/http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Founding.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 30 June 2007}}
*Gowing, R. Shave (1875) "George Tomline", in ''Public Men of Ipswich and East Suffolk'' Ipswich:Scopes and London:Grant & Co, 103–109.

===Obituaries===
*''Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal'', 28 August 1889
*''[[Lincoln Chronicle|Lincolnshire Chronicle]]'', 30 August 1889
*''[[Ipswich Journal]]'', 30 August 1889
*''[[Shrewsbury Chronicle]]'', 30 August 1889

== External links ==
*[https://www.antique-microscopes.com/photos/Andrew_Ross_326.htm The microscope that belonged to George Tomline made by Andrew Ross in 1847]
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-george-tomline | George Tomline }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
 | title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Sudbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Sudbury]]
 | years  = 1840–1841
 | with   = [[Joseph Bailey (Sudbury MP)|Joseph Bailey]]
 | before = [[Joseph Bailey (Sudbury MP)|Joseph Bailey]]<br />[[John Walsh, 1st Baron Ormathwaite|Sir John Walsh]]
 | after  = [[Frederick Villiers Meynell]]<br />[[David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre|David Sombre]]
}}
{{s-bef
 | before  = [[Robert Aglionby Slaney]]
 | before2 = [[Richard Jenkins (MP)|Richard Jenkins]]
}}
{{s-ttl
 | title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Shrewsbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Shrewsbury]]
 | years = [[1841 United Kingdom general election|1841]]–[[1847 United Kingdom general election|1847]]
 | with  = [[Benjamin Disraeli]]
}}
{{s-aft
 | after  = [[Robert Aglionby Slaney]]
 | after2 = [[Edward Holmes Baldock]]
}}
{{succession box
 | title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Shrewsbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Shrewsbury]]
 | years  = [[1852 United Kingdom general election|1852]]–[[1868 United Kingdom general election|1868]]
 | with   = [[Edward Holmes Baldock]] to 1857
 | with2  = [[Robert Aglionby Slaney]] 1857–1862
 | with3  = [[Henry Robertson]] 1862–1865
 | with4  = [[William James Clement]] from 1865
 | before = [[Robert Aglionby Slaney]]<br />[[Edward Holmes Baldock]]
 | after  = [[James Figgins]]<br />[[William James Clement]]
}}
{{succession box
 | title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Great Grimsby (UK Parliament constituency)|Great Grimsby]]
 | years  = [[1868 United Kingdom general election|1868]]–[[1874 United Kingdom general election|1874]]
 | before = [[John Fildes]]
 | after  = [[John Chapman (Grimsby MP)|John Chapman]]
}}
{{s-hon}}
{{succession box | before=[[Sir Charles Anderson, 9th Baronet|Sir Charles Anderson]] | title=[[High Sheriff of Lincolnshire]] | years=1852 | after=Joseph Livesey}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomline, George}}
[[Category:1813 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1837–1841]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1841–1847]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1852–1857]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1857–1859]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1859–1865]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1865–1868]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1868–1874]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:19th-century English astronomers]]
[[Category:British Life Guards officers]]
[[Category:High sheriffs of Lincolnshire]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Great Grimsby]]