David Blythe Foster (20 June 1858''

1939 England and Wales Register The National Registration Act 1939 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the World War II, Second World War. The Act provided ...

'' – 10 July 1948) was a British politician who served as

Lord Mayor of Leeds The Lord Mayor of Leeds (until 1897 known as the Mayor of Leeds) is a ceremonial post held by a member of Leeds City Council, elected annually by the council. By charter from Charles I of England, King Charles I in 1626, the leader of the gov ...

. Foster was born at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. A keen Methodist, he was a lay preacher, and volunteered with the Leeds Central Mission. His experiences there led him to write a book, ''Leeds Slumdom''. He ran a dressmakers' warehouse, and from 1893 limited working hours to 48 per week, and paid what he considered to be a living wage. In 1891, Foster was elected as a Liberal Party member of the

Holbeck Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins on the southern edge of Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 postcode district. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the o ...

Board of Guardians, but his views proved too radical for the party, which refused to support him the following year. Foster stood down, but ran as an independent progressive in 1894. In 1895, he joined the Independent Labour Party, and stood repeatedly for

Leeds Town Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of l ...

in Armley and Wortley. He decided, in 1897, to live on an average worker's wage. Foster also joined the

Labour Church The Labour Church was an organization intended to give expression to the religion of the labour movement. It had a Christian socialist outlook, specifically called theological socialism. History The first Labour Church was founded at Manchester in ...

movement in 1895, and supported the Leeds Brotherhood Church. He served as president of the Labour Church Union in 1902/03, but became disillusioned, believing it was insufficiently Christian, and he tried to start his own socialist Christian church in Bradford. Foster became secretary of the Leeds Labour Representation Committee in 1902, and in 1911 he was finally elected to the council, winning a seat in Hunslet. In 1928, he served as

. Foster died in Leeds, aged 90.

References

1858 births 1948 deaths British Christian socialists Independent Labour Party politicians Labour Party (UK) councillors Lord mayors of Leeds Methodist socialists People from Holme-on-Spalding-Moor {{England-mayor-stub