Tony Tomkins 1929 - 1999

by Gordon Winterton

 

Tony Tomkins died earlier this year aged 70. As both a Vice-Commodore and a friend, he was known to  many in the club. His ashes were scattered from Stella Genesta at Cantley into the River Yare on the Saturday of the May Day cruise. Gordon Winterton  gave a short address to the assembled company before Tony’s ashes were scattered.

Thank you for coming to this short ceremony to pay our last respects to Tony. All of us knew him over the years in various ways, as teacher, colleague, or as a friend. I knew him for fifty years since he first appeared in Swallow  with Cecil. In the half century I ate, drank, sailed, took holidays and 'first-footed with him'. His passing leaves a gap in my life. I am sure you too will feel that a hole has appeared, one which cannot be filled.

I said we all knew Tony: perhaps it should be we all thought we knew him. Tony was a very private person. His own life has been marked with some sadness and dis-appointment. Perhaps this accounts for his desire for privacy: we shall never know.

Despite this he joined in the activities of the Green Wyvern with great vigour over the years. The Green Wyvern is an organisation imbued with a sense of radicalism. Tony was more of a conformist but joined in our conversations and discussions.   Maybe he enjoyed the intellectual conflict even if he couldn’t agree. He was incap-able of malice but his tolerance was never patronising. That he loved the club and the pleasures he found with us is beyond doubt. Remember his words in the intro-duction to our rule book: ‘I think I would find a world without the Green Wyvern as unthinkable as a world without primary colours’. Only Tony could have written that.

The very existence of the Club owes much to Tony. When he entered the profession in which he was to rise to the top, he enthused his pupils with his love of language and drama, and encouraged them to join him on the river. The numbers of young people who sailed with him in the formative years ensured our continuation. Many are still with us. He was active in the administration of the club and as Vice-Commodore he participated for many years in the planning and organisation . . . time-consuming, but necessary, to the well being of all members.

So we carry out what we know would be an acceptable last rite. We shall consign his ashes to the river from Stella Genesta, the boat he sailed for so long. In our way a sort of Viking funeral, though Tony was no Viking, nor would he have wanted to be. Stella  will now move up stream and on her return past, her crew will consign Tony’s ashes to the river.  

EGW 1999