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Former Oxford Union president dies on gap year(The Daily Telegraph, Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)A FORMER president of the Oxford Union with ambitions to become an MP has died suddenly on holiday from a suspected blood clot. Edward Tomlinson, 24, died on April 5, just weeks after arriving in Lebanon to learn Arabic. Known to his friends as Eddie, he was having a gap year after graduating last year with a 2:1 in classics from St John's College, Oxford. His parents had flown to Beirut for a holiday with their son but were met by embassy officials at the airport and told that Edward had died in his sleep hours before. Authorities said the circumstances were not suspicious. Mr Tomlinson's mother, Dr Heather Tomlinson, 57, a teacher at Hereford Cathedral School where he had been a pupil, said: "We are all feeling this so deeply. More than anything else, Ed was fun, gentle, caring and loved by all.'' His father, Dr Howard Tomlinson, 58, recently retired as headmaster of Hereford Cathedral School. He described his son as "fit, strong and sporty'' and added: "He touched the lives of so many people and had a large circle of friends.'' Two years ago, Mr Tomlinson became one of the first people since the former Tory leader William Hague to jointly hold the positions of president of the Oxford Union and the Oxford University Conservative Association. He had ambitions to follow in the footsteps of former union presidents who went on to become prime minister, such as Sir Edward Heath and William Gladstone. His former girlfriend, Laura Poots, 21, said he could have had a future on the front benches despite recently winning a scholarship to study law. "He would have ended up running for Parliament; he would have loved that.'' |