Oliver Fellows Tomkins
Oliver Fellows Tomkins was an English-born Congregationalist missionary. Tomkins spent little over a year as a missionary in Papua New Guinea before he died a violent death alongside James Chalmers in 1901.
Early years
Oliver Fellows Tomkins was born in Great Yarmouth in 1873, the son of Daniel Tomkins and his second wife Caroline Katie Fellows. He was educated at his father's school in Yarmouth, and afterwards, for a short time, in Switzerland. He spent five years in business in Norwich, and was a member of Dr Barrett's church. He then became a student at Harley House, Dr. Henry Grattan Guinness' Training College, at Bromley-by-Bow, and took the medical course at Livingstone College. During his vacations, Tomkins did evangelistic work among the fishermen of the North Sea fleet, and mission work in English country villages with caravan and tent.Career
Tomkins was appointed to work in the Torres Strait, and was selected by the "Home Magazine Missionary Band" as one of their own missionaries, half the cost of his support being borne by members of that Band. He sailed on 8 December 1899, with the Rev Albert Pearse, to join Chalmers in his work in the Torres Strait.Chalmers had been pleased in the arrival of Tomkins in 1900 to share the burden of his large district with him. Throughout Mrs. Chalmers's last illness, Tomkins had been "a great help and a great comfort". "No son could have treated me more kindly than he did." In the accession of this young colleague, Chalmers saw reasons for hoping that he might have more time to return to his pioneer work.
A few months after Tomkins's arrival, there came a brief message from Chalmers to the Mission House regarding Tomkins:— "He will do; send us two more of the same sort." That opinion, formed almost at first sight, was confirmed in the months that followed. Again and again, Chalmers testified to his strong affection for, and approval of, Tomkins. They were indeed, as Dr. William George Lawes has called them, "the intrepid Paul and the beloved Timothy."
Death
Accompanied by Tomkins, Chalmers arrived at the Aird River of Goaribari Island on board the Niue on 7 April 1901. The last entry in Tomkins' diary supplied some account of the first communications with the cannibals of Gulf Province:None of the Niue missionaries or the twelve native Christians who accompanied them were seen after the visit. What really happened was only ascertained a month later, when George Le Hunte, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, visited the Aird River with a punitive expedition and heard the story from a captured prisoner. This was quoted from an account supplied by the Rev Archibald Ernest Hunt, who accompanied the Lieutenant-Governor:
There is a memorial plaque to Tomkins in the United Reformed Church, Princes St, Norwich.