James Tomkinson

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

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.

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

James Tomkinson MP, circa 1910
Tomkinson at the House of Commons Steeplechase in a photograph taken shortly before his death from a fall.