[2] Tobin left England for Lima, Peru in 1872 and lived there for 12 years, commanding the British Fire Brigade "Victoria" there.

During the First World War, at the request of Sir James Barr, he organised the Avenue Auxiliary Hospital.

His involvement in war work was both in this medical capacity as Corps Superintendent of the St John Ambulance Association in Liverpool (he later became the Chairman of the Liverpool Centre of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem[3]) and also through his connections with the Civic Service League.

It was Tobin who collected the necessary funds for the equipment of the hospital, and in his endeavours he was assisted by both the St.John Ambulance Association, and by the Liverpool branch of the British Red Cross.

He married Li La Beach on 17 January 1878, the daughter of Sanford Smith and widow of Edward Holden Martindale of Rochester, New York.