Nora Tomlinson obituary
My mother, Nora Tomlinson, who has died aged 77, was a lifelong educator of both herself and other people, and a passionate believer in fighting injustice and inequality.
The only daughter of Edward Saunders, a watchmaker, and Evelyn (nee Innis), a teacher, Nora was born in Stoke-on-Trent but moved to Coventry when she was a toddler. While studying English literature at the women-only Westfield College, north London, she met my father, Barry Tomlinson, who was studying aeronautical engineering at Imperial College. They married in 1961 and initially lived in Farnborough, Hampshire, with Nora beginning her teaching career at France Hill school in nearby Camberley. Eventually, however, they settled in Bedford in 1965, when Barry went to work at Royal Aircraft Establishment Thurleigh.
Once my mother moved to Bedford she left schoolteaching and joined the world of adult education, working for the National Extension College and, shortly after its foundation, the Open University. There, for more than 30 years, she was a tutor and wrote a number of courses, including one on the 19th-century novel. As well as encouraging others to pursue education, she continued with her own through an MA, part-time at Hatfield College, followed by a PhD with the OU, awarded in 1996, with a thesis on the author Ford Madox Ford’s period as an editor of the English Review.
Researching in the House of Lords record office, she came across a box of Ford’s miscellany, including cheque stubs from his time at the ER. These demonstrated his poor financial management and proved pivotal in her thesis challenging the conventional opinion that he was a great editor. Nora and Barry donated their collection of Ford first editions and other publications to Durham University in 2012.
Nora’s sense of social justice prompted her to become involved in many areas of community activity, including reading to the inmates at Bedford prison, protesting at Greenham Common, promoting fair trade and offering accommodation to striking miners.
She always had at least two books on the go – often a novel and a biography. Correspondence to family and friends invariably included a cutting from the Guardian. She was also an accomplished pianist, sang with several choirs and played with a recorder ensemble.
She is survived by Barry, by three children, Judith, Andrew and me, and by four grandchildren. A fifth grandchild, George, predeceased her in 1996.