RUTH Kelly, MP for Bolton West, is not the first local politician to become the country's Education Minister.

Mr George Tomlinson, who died in September, 1952, aged 62, was the Labour MP for Farnworth for 14 years and was Minister of Education from 1947 to 1951.

Born in Rishton, he began his working life as a half-timer in a weaving shed at the age of 11.

He later lived in Farnworth for nearly 20 years, initially at 77 Carlton Street. He traded as a botanic beer brewer at Gladstone Road and later at 6 Darley Street, where he had a temperance bar and wine merchant's business.

Mr Tomlinson gave valuable service to councils in Rishton and Farnworth before his election to Lancashire County Council.

In 1938 he succeeded the late Mr Guy Rowson as MP for Farnworth and after three years in the House he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour.

After Labour's landslide victory in 1945 he was made Minister of Works and in 1947 he succeeded Miss Helen Wilkinson at the Ministry of Education.

His obituary in the Bolton Evening News contains this passage: "When Mr Tomlinson was chosen by Mr Attlee for the post of Minister of Education he was able to bring to the administrative side of the job a practical knowledge gained through public service.

"He had looked forward keenly to the opening of the new county secondary school being built at Kearsley.

"It is to be named the George Tomlinson County Secondary Modern School and will commemorate his service to education."

Mr Tomlinson was a Methodist local preacher for more than 40 years and and was said to have a gift for expressing his political philosophy in terms of Christian socialism.

When he reached the heights of government he is quoted as saying: "I am doing something I wanted to do more than anything on earth.

"I am trying to translate Acts of Parliament into deeds of kindness for young people."

In December, 1992 there was a row when Tory-controlled Southall Council decided to drop George Tomlinson's name when a schools merger took place.

But the name has been retained in Bolton through several re-organisations.