Donald Michael Ellison Foster, Baron Foster of Bath (born 31 March 1947), is a British politician and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

who served as Government Deputy Chief Whip and

Comptroller of the Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of t ...

from 2013 to 2015. A member of the Liberal Democrats, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

from

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Early life

Foster was born in Preston, Lancashire, and attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School before Keele University where he was awarded a BSc degree in physics and psychology in 1969, and also received the CertEd that same year. He later received an MEd in education at the University of Bath in 1981. He was a science teacher at Sevenoaks School in Kent in 1969, before appointment as

Avon Avon may refer to: * River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers Organisations *Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England *Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...

Education Authority's Science Project Director in 1975 and as a

Lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

in Education at

Bristol University , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

in 1980, before being engaged as a management consultant with

Pannell Kerr Forster PKF International (previously known as Pannell Kerr Forster) is a global network of accountancy firms. The network's 224 member firms operate under the PKF brand in 150 countries across 5 regions. PKF International has 20,000 professionals and is ...

from 1989 until his election to the House of Commons.

Parliamentary career

A local party activist, he was a founder member of the Avon Liberal Democrats and was elected as a Councillor on Avon County Council in 1981 for Cabot Ward, and was the SDP-Liberal Alliance Group Leader from 1981 to 1986. He also served as the county's education committee chairman, and remained a Councillor until 1989. He unsuccessfully contested Bristol East at the 1987 general election where he finished in third place, 11,659 votes behind the Conservative Jonathan Sayeed. He was first elected in the constituency of Bath at the 1992 general election when he defeated then- Conservative Party Chairman,

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

with a majority of 3,768. In his maiden speech on 12 May 1992, Foster spoke of the World Heritage Site status of

and sent his best wishes to Patten in Hong Kong. In Parliament, Foster was the Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Education under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown in 1992, in which capacity he served until 1999. In December 2010, in response to a call from the Football Supporters' Federation, he introduced a Bill in Parliament for English and Welsh football safe standing areas, the first of its kind since the Taylor Report. Having been sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in 2010, in September 2012 Foster was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government before being promoted in October 2013 as Government Deputy Chief Whip representing the Liberal Democrats in the

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

. In January 2014, Foster announced he would stand down as an MP at the following general election. He was created Baron Foster of Bath, of Bath in the County of Somerset, in the

2015 Dissolution Honours The 2015 Dissolution Honours List was issued on 27 August 2015 upon the advice of the Prime Minister, David Cameron. The Life Peerages were announced separately from the other appointments, while it was gazetted as a single list on 22 September 2 ...

, becoming a member of the House of Lords. His Bath constituency was won by the Conservatives at the 2015 general election and regained by the Liberal Democrats in 2017.

Personal life

His interests include Third World issues, being a member of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

and the Child Poverty Action Group as well as supporting a number of local charities, including Ted's Big Day Out and Julian House. Lord Foster's main national charity is WaterAid and he has seen first hand their work in Ethiopia. He is a Vice-President of the Debating Group, and also enjoys sport, music, ballet, travelling and reading; Lord Foster also plays the ukulele. Foster was nominated for a

age in August 2015, despite having previously favoured abolition of the House of Lords. When accused of hypocrisy, Foster stated: "I want to get rid of

he House of Lords He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

and the only way o do that..is having people there who will do just that."

Publications

* ''Resource Based Learning in Science'' by Don Foster, 1979, Association for Science Education * ''Science with Gas'' by Don Foster, 1981 * ''Aspects of Science'' by Don Foster, 1984, Longman * ''Reading about Science'' by Don Foster, 1984 * ''Nuffield Science'' by Don Foster, 1986 * ''Teaching Science 11–13'' Edited by Don Foster, Cecil Powell and Roger Lock, 1987, Routledge * ''Education: Investing in Education'' by Don Foster, 1994, Liberal Democrat Publications * ''Making the Right Start: Nursery Education and Care'' by Don Foster, 1994, Liberal Democrat Publications * ''From the Three Rs to the Three Cs: A Personal View of Education'' by Don Foster, 2003

Early life

Parliamentary career

Personal life

Publications

See also

Notes

External links