James Tomkinson

James Tomkinson PC (1840 – 10 April 1910)^[1] was an English landowner and Liberal politician.

James Tomkinson MP, circa 1910

Life

Tomkinson at the House of Commons Steeplechase in a photograph taken shortly before his death from a fall.

Born in 1840, Tomkinson lived at Willington Hall, Chester. He was the son of Waterloo veteran Lieutenant-Colonel William Tomkinson and Susan, daughter of Thomas Tarleton of Bolesworth Castle, Cheshire^[2] and a descendent of Sir Roland Egerton, 1st Baronet.

He was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1887.^[3] In 1895, he unsuccessfully contested Nuneaton for the Liberals,^[4] but at the 1900 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Crewe, holding the seat until his death in April 1910.^[5] He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Cheshire in 1901,^[6] became Second Church Estates Commissioner in 1907, and member of the Privy Council in November 1909.^[7][8][9]

In 1871 Tomkinson married Emily Frances Palmer, a daughter of Sir George Palmer, 3rd Baronet, by his marriage to Emily Elizabeth Holford.^[7]

Tomkinson died on 10 April 1910 from injuries sustained in a fall while participating in the House of Commons Steeplechase.^[10]

Descendants

• Charles William Tomkinson (1877–1939)^[7]
• James Edward Tomkinson, later Palmer-Tomkinson (1879–1961)^[7]

• James Algernon Palmer-Tomkinson (1915–1952)

• Charles Palmer-Tomkinson (born 1940)

• James Palmer-Tomkinson
• Santa Palmer-Tomkinson, now Santa Montefiore (born 1970)
• Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (1971–2017)

• Christopher Palmer-Tomkinson (born 1942)
• Jeremy Palmer-Tomkinson (born 1943)

• Jane Lindsay Tomkinson, who in 1935 married Herbert Ingram, later Sir Herbert Ingram (1912–1980)^[11]
• Henry Archdale Tomkinson (1881–1937) (Brigadier Tomkinson), manager of the royal Racing and Breeding Studs^[12]