He was born at Dalton to schoolteacher Abednego Tonking and Marian, née Dunne.
He taught at Bowral from 1915 to 1916, when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force rising through the ranks from Trooper to Lieutenant at the war's end.
He was founding chairman of the Orange Producers' Rural Co-operative Society from 1930 to 1938.
[1] Tonking was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1932 as the United Australia Party member for Orange, serving until his defeat in 1941.
On 16 February 1943 he married Joan Mary Bowen, with whom he had a son; he served on the Liberal Party's state executive in 1945.