Sculptor, journalist and editor, born in Broseley, Shropshire, whose early life was in the Potteries. He left school at 14 to become an errand boy, at 16 moving to Todmorden, Lancashire, where he remained, rising by self-education from worker for a clothing firm to staffer and then editor for 21 years of the Todmorden News and Advertiser. During World War II he was a conscientious objector before being declared unfit for military service because of a weak heart. On his fiftieth birthday, Tonkiss decided to start sculpting in clay, the material worked by his Cornish ancestors. He was encouraged by the local artist and writer William Holt and sculptor Dante Alberti, of Manchester, both key influences. Tonkiss developed as a fine, sensitive portrait sculptor, “never out of work.