Not to be confused with W J Thompson, who was also associated with Exeter United, Mr Tomkins had participated in football in the Exeter parish of St Matthews when he joined the committee of the embryonic Exeter Association club in September 1891. Run by Henry Tucker, head of a private school in St Leonard's, the club briefly flourished before giving way to an entirely new club of the same name in 1893. Although the extent of Mr Tomkins' association with the successor club is unclear, he did become treasurer of Exeter United an altogether stronger club that was in existence between 1896 and 1902.

Mr Tomkins was possibly born around 1869 and is believed to have originated from Exmouth. If this information is accurate he would have been around twenty-years-old when he became a member of the fledgling St Matthews AFC in the late 1880s.