My father, Dave Tomlin, who passed away at the age of 90, was a musician, writer, and a notable figure in the British counterculture scene that emerged during the 1960s.
In 1976, he was among those who occupied the vacant former Cambodian embassy in London, creating a vibrant community of artists, musicians, poets, craftsmen, and radical thinkers, which they named the Guild of Transcultural Studies.
Over time, the guild transformed into an extravagant venue for cultural and musical events, attracting refugees from diverse locations including Chile and China, and featuring performances by artists from Morocco and India. Many attendees were unaware that the elegant setting was actually a squat. After a lengthy legal battle, the guild was ultimately forced to shut down in 1991, ending Dave’s vision of returning the building to a future Cambodian government.
Dave was born in Plaistow, east London (at that time part of Essex), to Stan Tomlin, a packing-case craftsman, and Louisa (nee Goodsell). He avoided a life in factory work by enlisting in the King’s Guard, where he learned to play the bugle for the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, marking the beginning of his musical journey. He became a jazz musician in the 1950s, playing the clarinet and saxophone in Bob Wallis’s Storyville Jazz Band and touring with Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
In the late 1960s, he became immersed in the hippy movement, traveling around the countryside in a horse-drawn cart and performing in experimental folk groups, including the Third Ear Band. He played at the UFO Club in London, often performing at 4 a.m.: “Only when the dancers are completely exhausted will they be in a fit state to hear what we have for them.”
Dave also became involved with the London Free School in Notting Hill, a hub for progressive adult education, where he taught free-form jazz. While there, he organized annual musical parades down Portobello Road, which eventually contributed to the development of the Notting Hill Carnival.
His adventures included a stint of being stranded without money on the island of Fernando Po (now Bioko) in Equatorial Guinea, from which he secured a passage home by pretending, albeit unconvincingly, to be a skilled cook and deckhand. To support his modest lifestyle, he tended gardens and worked as a handyman.
In his later years, Dave focused on writing about his life experiences, culminating in the publication of *Tales From the Embassy* in 2017. He also engaged in Chinese brush painting and took on the quirky challenge of learning to recite the alphabet backward.
He is survived by three children from various relationships—Lee, Maya, and myself—along with his brother, Tony.
