Although he was educated to work as a librarian, he enlisted in the Royal Armoured Corps on 3 October 1939 to serve in World War II.
After the end of the war he read history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and was tutored by David Thomson.
From 1948 Tinker lectured at the SOAS University of London, teaching Southeast Asia's modern history.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes him as becoming "Britain's foremost historian of modern Burma."
He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Parliament three times and continued to publish works, notably on the history of Burma.