One of the country's leading academics has died at the age of 69.

Professor John Tomlinson CBE was an emeritus professor and former Director of the Institute of Education at Warwick University, as well as the founder of the General Teaching Council for England, the body which regulates the teaching profession in England.

Born in 1932, he was educated at Stretford Grammar School in Trafford and at Manchester University. After completing a history degree, he studied at the Institute for Historical Research at London University where he was awarded an MA.

He married Audrey Barrett in 1954. The couple had four children.

In keeping with family tradition, his National Service was in the RAF where he secured a three-year commission, emerging in 1958 as a flight lieutenant.

Having taught young RAF recruits a variety of GCE subjects and gained experience in organisation and management he opted, in civilian life, for teaching and educational administration.

He taught in secondary schools and lectured in Workers' Educational Association evening classes for two years before applying for the post of administrative assistant in the Education Department of the County of Shropshire.

After three years, he moved to Lancashire as a new assistant education officer and was given the challenging task of overseeing the move to comprehensive schooling.

Four years later, he moved to Cheshire as deputy county education officer and was promoted in 1971 to the top post.

From 1973 to 1976 he was a member of the Court Committee, established to redesign national child health services, and from 1978 until its abolition in 1981, he chaired the Schools Council. In 1982, he was elected chairman of the Society of Education Officers.

After 17 years in Cheshire, Prof Tomlinson successfully applied for the joint posts of Professor and Director of the Institute of Education at Warwick University. He lectured, carried out research and helped steer the university through reorganisation.

While at Warwick, he led an inquiry into how further education colleges should best relate to students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The Tomlinson Committee report, Inclusive Learning, was published in 1996.

He was also chairman of the council of the Royal Society of Arts, made a Freeman of the City of London in 1989 and elected a liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1991.

Retiring from full time work in 1997, to tend his beloved garden and pursue his interests in the arts, Prof Tomlinson was persuaded to take on the role of academic secretary of UCET, the Universities Council for Education of Teachers. In this capacity he helped co-ordinate the universities' responses to the numerous reforms of teacher training.

He was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the General Teaching Council for England and served as its first vice-chair, supporting the Government-appointed chairman, Lord Puttnam, for its first two years. in 2000 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer but continued to work in various educational charities.