Philip Foster (British politician)

Philip Staveley Foster (11 July 1865 – 5 March 1933) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Philip Foster
High Sheriff of Sussex
In office
20 March 1931 – March 1932
MonarchGeorge V
Preceded byRonald Olaf Hambro
Succeeded byDesmond Beale-Browne
Member of Parliament
for Stratford-on-Avon
In office
4 May 1909 – 14 December 1918
Preceded byThomas Kincaid-Smith
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
In office
25 June 1901 – 12 January 1906
Preceded byVictor Milward
Succeeded byThomas Kincaid-Smith
Personal details
Born11 July 1865
Died5 March 1933 (aged 67)
CitizenshipBritish
Political partyConservative
Children3
EducationEton College
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford

Early life

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Foster was the only son of Abraham Briggs Foster, chairman of the alpaca and mohair spinning firm of John Foster and Son of Black Dyke Mills, Queensbury, near Bradford. The firm had been founded by Philip's great-grandfather. He went to Eton College in 1879 and Magdalen College, Oxford in 1884, leaving with a degree three years later.

In the late 1880s he held a commission in the 6th West Yorkshire Militia, and from 1890 in the Staffordshire Yeomanry, where he was promoted to major in 1900.

Parliamentary career

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After running unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1899 in a by-election to the Elland seat in West Yorkshire, he was elected for the constituency of Stratford-on-Avon in a by-election in June 1901,[1] a seat he held until the election of 1906. Re-elected in 1909, he held the seat until its abolition in 1918.

Public life

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He became a director and later, a firm chairman of the family firm John Foster and Sons. He was also chairman of the Air League, and chairman of the Midland Automobile Club. A keen angler and farmer, he became High Sheriff of Sussex for 1931.[2]

Family

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Foster married, in 1890, Louisa Frances Wemyss, daughter of Colonel Wemyss. They had three children. He bought a house in Old Buckhurst, Withyham, where he died in 1933 aged 67.

References

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  1. ^ "No. 27323". The London Gazette. 28 June 1901. p. 4331.
  2. ^ "No. 33700". The London Gazette. 20 March 1931. p. 1878.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon
19011906
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon
19091918
Constituency abolished
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Ronald Olaf Hambro
High Sheriff of Sussex
1931–1932
Succeeded by