My friend Canon Ian Tomlinson achieved the distinction of serving as the rector of a rural benefice in Hampshire for 37 years, from 1979 until his death, at the age of 66, from cancer.
He never lost his sense of engagement with the community, his ability to be imaginative and his disconcerting sense of humour, which, like the court jester of old, lay in quietly uncovering something profound in the ordinary. His soul would not be fettered by church programmes or policies. One bishop claimed that he “did good by stealth”.
Son of George Tomlinson, a painter and decorator, and his wife, Joan (nee Saggers), Ian was born in Cottingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. A few years later, his family moved to the coast at Scarborough to take over the running of a boarding house from Joan’s parents. There, as a choirboy at St Martin’s, Scarborough, Ian was captured by the beauty of holiness in the worship of an Anglo-Catholic shrine with the discipline of three choral services every Sunday. He was educated at Scarborough high school for boys, then trained for the ministry at King’s College London.
Ian was ordained deacon in York Minster by Donald Coggan, the archbishop, in 1973, and priest the following year, to serve in the parish of Thirsk. His second curacy was in Harrogate, where his vicar was Michael Manktelow. When Manktelow was appointed suffragan bishop of Basingstoke, he persuaded his talented young curate to follow him south.
Ian was inducted as incumbent of the benefice of Appleshaw with Kimpton, Thruxton and Fyfield in 1979, to which in 2002 was added Shipton Bellinger. He brought with him a Yorkshire warmth and candidness, which won respect and affection in the Hampshire countryside. He intensely understood rural Anglicanism: the church schools, the hall committee, the playing field, the magazine; he was there and often heading things up. Yet he never succumbed to the purely local. His keen mind was always engaged to the full: he undertook two master’s degrees (at Hull and Oxford) and a doctorate (at King’s) alongside his church work.
After undergoing psychotherapy training at the Tavistock Clinic and the Grubb Institute in London, Ian founded a diocesan pastoral counselling service. He was a deeply involved chairman of the Andover Crisis and Support Centre. He was made an honorary canon of Winchester Cathedral in 2004. His final duty in this role was to be involved in the interview process for the next dean of Winchester and he was proud to have made that contribution to the future.
A book developed from his King’s thesis, and provisionally titled What’s Happening to Me and Why?, is due to be published next year.
He is survived by his second wife, Caroline (nee Shirley), whom he married in 2006; by Hugh, Ralph and James (the Hampshire cricketer), the three sons of his first marriage, to Janet, which ended in divorce, and three grandchildren; and by his sister, Christine.
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