Tom Southgate

Tom Southgate was the landlord of the Bull, a pub in the town of Sutton. An extremely ornery and superstitious man, he believed a sea monster guarded King John's treasure and that Professor Lowson's expedition would disturb the beast. When the Slime Beast appeared, Southgate believed it was the treasure guardian risen in anger, and tried to persuade the people of Sutton to capture Lowson, his niece Liz Beck and assistant curator Gavin Royle and kill them, but the mob was prevented from doing so by Mallard Glover. When the Slime Beast entered Sutton the first time, Southgate witnessed it kill his neighbor Growson's dog Rex, and tried and failed to kill the monster with his shotgun. When the Slime Beast attacked Sutton a second time, it killed Southgate. Upon returning to Sutton many years later and encountering a second Slime Beast, Gavin and Liz remembered Southgate as one of the original monster's many victims.