George Tomlinson | |
---|---|
Minister of Education | |
In office February 1947 – 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 |
|
Personal details | |
Born |
Rishton, Lancashire |
21 March 1890
Died | 22 September 1952 Manor House Hospital, Golders Green, London |
(aged 62)
Political party | Labour |
Spouse(s) | Ethel, née Pursell (m. 1914) |
Children | one daughter |
Religion | Methodist |
George Tomlinson (21 March 1890 – 22 September 1952) was a British Labour Party politician.
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.