Rear Admiral Peter Tomlinson SM was a South African Navy officer.

He attended school at Diocesan College in Cape Town from 1936 until March 1941.

[1]: 144–145 He joined the South African Air Force in World War II, serving in the motor boat flotilla.

He was commissioned in 1945 and was one of sixty naval officers who joined the Permanent Force in 1946.

Ashore he served as Acting Director of Personnel and as South Africa’s attaché in Argentina as well as Chief of Naval Staff (Personnel) from 1 July 1974 and Chief of Naval Staff Operations from 1978 to 1982.