Honorary Fellow, Lord Tombs of Brailes

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of Lord Tombs of Brailes who died in April aged 95.

Francis Tombs, an engineer who became a highly respected industrialist, was elected as an Honorary Fellow in 1989. Lord Tombs headed major UK companies in the 1980s and 1990s, combining an outstanding business record with a deep commitment to engineering.

Our President, Professor Joe McGeough, led the tributes, saying ,

“It is far too rare in this country that we see engineers having the opportunity to take the lead in Government.  Francis Tombs was shining example of the benefit that quality engineering-thinking can bring to improving the lives of all our citizens.”

Lord Tombs was Chairman of the Electricity Council and Rolls Royce, and as well as responsible for restructuring Turner & Newall, and the Weir Group. In his role as Chairman of the Engineering Council from 1985 to 1988, he sought to raise the profile of the profession and expand engineering opportunities in university and colleges.

Francis Tombs was born in Walsall, West Midlands; after leaving school at 15 he ended up working for GEC, taking engineering qualifications at night school at the Birmingham College of Technology.

His career focused mainly on the electricity industry and led him to becoming Chairman of the South of Scotland Electricity Board. In 1977, he was headhunted for the role of Chairman of the Electricity Council.

Subsequently, Lord Tombs took more broader industrial roles, becoming Chairman of the Weir Group from 1981 to 1983 and Chairman of Turner & Newall in 1982.

Professor McGeough added,

"In my own collaboration in research with the Electricity Council Research Centre, the South of Scotland Electricity Board and Rolls-Royce over the years, I am deeply grateful  for the influence he, as

Knighted in 1978, Tombs was created a life peer in February 1990 as Baron Tombs of Brailes in the County of Warwickshire. He retired from the House of Lords in 2015. Lord Tombs wrote a memoir “Power Politics: Encounters in Industry and Engineering”.

His wife, Marjorie, whom he married in 1949, died in 2008. He is survived by their three daughters, Kate, Lis and Meg, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.