Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs


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

Biography

He was educated at Elmore Green School, Walsall, and at the University of London. 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 was granted a leave of absence in March 2008 which lasted until July 2010. Tombs retired from the House of Lords on 31 March 2015. He wrote a memoir, entitled . Tombs died in April 2020 at the age of 95.