Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs

Francis Leonard Tombs, Baron Tombs was an English industrialist and politician who served as a crossbench member of the House of Lords from 1990 until his retirement in 2015.

Background

Tombs was born to a Catholic family in Walsall in 1924, one of three sons born to Joseph and Jane Tombs. He was educated at Elmore Green School, Walsall, and at the University of London. He worked for the General Electric Company from 1944 to 1946.

Career

Tombs had a career in industry, particularly in electricity generation. He was chairman of the South of Scotland Electricity Board, the Electricity Council and Rolls-Royce. Tombs was president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1981 and became an Honorary Fellow of its successor organisation the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 1991. Tombs was named chairman of Turner & Newall P.L.C., Britain's largest manufacturer of asbestos products on 30 November 1982, and remained there throughout much of the 1980s.
Knighted in 1978, Tombs was created a life peer on 29 February 1990, as Baron Tombs, of Brailes in the County of Warwickshire. He sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher, and was on a number of committees. Tombs was granted a leave of absence in March 2008, which lasted until July 2010. He wrote a memoir, Power Politics: Political Encounters in Industry and Engineering, which was published later that year. Tombs retired from the House of Lords on 31 March 2015.

Personal life and death

In 1949, Tombs married Marjorie Evans; they had three daughters and were married until her death in 2008.
Tombs died from complications of dementia at a care home in Coventry on 11 April 2020, at the age of 95.