Lance Tompkins

Tompkins was born in Kimbolton in the Manawatu region of New Zealand. The artist Helen Crabb was his aunt. On 7 April 1926, he married Marjorie Rees Manning at St Peter's Cathedral in Hamilton. She was the daughter of Arthur Edwards Manning, the former mayor of Hamilton. At the time, Tompkins lived at Tuhikaramea, a locality south-west of Hamilton.

Tompkins studied law extramurally at the Auckland Law School. His studies were interrupted by World War I; he served in France where he was gassed and suffered a hearing impairment. After the war, he went to Auckland to finish his degree. He graduated in 1921 and received his degree from the University of New Zealand.

Tompkins served as president of the Hamilton District Law Society and was a member of the New Zealand Law Society Council, 1940–42. He was elected a Hamilton City councillor in 1955 and served until 1958. He was admitted to the Inner Bar as Queen's Counsel on 13 May 1958. He was appointed a Supreme Court judge on 2 August 1963, retiring in 1969.

A prominent figure in Hamilton, Tompkins held a number of roles including: president of Birthright Hamilton, 1958–1961; founding trustee and president, in 1961–1962, of the Waikato Savings Bank; chairman of Bartholomew Timbers Ltd, 1938–1963; member of the Board of Governors of the Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, 1934–1963; and president and life member of the Hamilton Golf Club. He also served as a judge of the Court of Appeal of Fiji and chairman of the Legal Aid Authority.