Isaac Foot (23 February 1880 – 13 December 1960) was a British
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
politician and solicitor.
Early life
Isaac Foot was born in
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
, the son of a carpenter and undertaker who was also named Isaac Foot,
and educated at Plymouth Public School and the Hoe Grammar School, which he left at the age of 14.
He then worked at the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
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in London, but returned to Plymouth to train as a solicitor.
[ Foot qualified in 1902, and in 1903, with his friend Edgar Bowden, he set up the law firm Foot and Bowden,][ which as Foot-Anstey still exists.
He became a member of the ]Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
, and in 1907 was elected to Plymouth City Council
Plymouth City Council is the unitary authority for Plymouth, Devon. It has traditionally been controlled by Labour or the Conservatives. The council is currently in a state of no overall control, with the Conservatives governing as a minority a ...
, of which he remained a member for twenty years, serving as Deputy Mayor in 1920.[ As Deputy Mayor he represented Plymouth in the United States for the celebrations of the '']Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
''s tercentenary.
Parliamentary career
Foot first stood for parliament in Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...
in January 1910, losing to the sitting Liberal Unionist
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...
, F. B. Mildmay He then stood twice for Bodmin
Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor.
The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordere ...
, but was unsuccessful. At Plymouth Sutton
Plymouth, Sutton was, from 1918 until 2010, a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
History
Pl ...
in the by-election of November 1919 he was beaten by Nancy Astor
Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945.
Astor's first husband was America ...
, who became the first woman MP in Britain to take her seat in Parliament and a lifelong friend of Foot.[
Foot was elected as ]Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for Bodmin
Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor.
The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordere ...
at a by-election in February 1922, retaining his seat in the general elections of 1922 and 1923. He lost his seat in October 1924 but regained it in the 1929 general election, when the Liberals took all five Cornish seats.[ He held the seat until he lost again in the 1935 general election.
Foot served on the ]Round Table Conference
The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...
on India in 1930–31 and on Burma in 1931 and was also on the Joint Select committee on India. His championing of the poor of the subcontinent earnt him the sobriquet of "the member for the Depressed Classes".[Stanley Goodman, ‘Foot, Isaac (1880–1960)’, rev. Mark Pottle, ]Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2004; online edn, May 200
accessed 13 April 2008
/ref>
In 1931 he became Secretary for Mines
The position of Secretary for Mines is a now defunct office in the United Kingdom Government, associated with the Board of Trade.
In 1929, the department took over responsibility for petroleum.
In 1940, the department was divided with Geoffrey ...
in the National Government, but resigned the following year in protest at the protectionist Ottawa Agreements.[
He fought two more elections, at St Ives in 1937, and ]Tavistock
Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028 ...
in 1945, losing both.[
]
After parliament
In 1936 he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. He became a Privy Counsellor
The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...
in 1937.[ He served as ]President of the Liberal Party This is a list of people who served as President of the British Liberal Party. The Liberal Party merged into the Liberal Democrats in 1988.
The post was established in 1877 as President of the National Liberal Federation. In 1936, this body was r ...
from 1947 to 1948.[
Foot was a ]Methodist local preacher
A Methodist local preacher, also known as a licensed preacher, is a layperson who has been accredited by the Methodist Church to lead worship and preach on a frequent basis. With separation from the Church of England by the end of the 18th century ...
(as his father had been) and served as Vice President of the Methodist Conference
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical ass ...
(1937–38).
In 1945 he was chosen unanimously as Lord Mayor of Plymouth
This is a list of some notable mayors and all the later lord mayors of the city of Plymouth in the United Kingdom.
Plymouth had elected a mayor annually since 1439. The city was awarded the dignity of a lord mayoralty by letters patent dated ...
, despite not being a member of the council.[ Foot also served as Deputy-Chairman of the Cornwall ]Quarter Sessions
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...
in 1945, and was Chairman from 1953 to 1955,[ a distinction rarely granted to a solicitor.]
Exeter University
, mottoeng = "We Follow the Light"
, established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter)
, type = Public
, ...
awarded him the honorary degree of DLitt in 1959.[
Foot also built up a library of over 70,000 books at his home near ]Callington
Callington ( kw, Kelliwik) is a civil parish and town in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom about north of Saltash and south of Launceston.
Callington parish had a population of 4,783 in 2001, according to the 2001 census. This had inc ...
and would wake at five in the morning in order to read them. In old age he taught himself Greek, so as to read the New Testament in the original.
Personal life
Foot was married to Eva Mackintosh, daughter of Angus Mackintosh. Eva died in 1946. Foot married Catherine Elizabeth Taylor, née Dawe (born Liskeard 1894) in St Germans in 1951, who survived him.
Four of the Foots' sons followed their father into public life.
* Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot (1905–1978), a Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
, later Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
, Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
and Solicitor General.
*Hugh Mackintosh Foot, Baron Caradon
Hugh Mackintosh Foot, Baron Caradon (8 October 1907 – 5 September 1990) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat who was Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and the last governor of British Cyprus.
E ...
(1907–1990), a senior diplomat and member of the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
.
* John Mackintosh Foot, Baron Foot (1909–1999), Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
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 ...
.
* Michael Mackintosh Foot (1913–2010), Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
and later Leader of the Labour Party (1980–83).
The Foots also had two daughters, Margaret and Jennifer, and one other son, Christopher, who went into the family law practice. Hugh's son, Paul Foot, was a prominent campaigning journalist and political activist, being a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
He died on 13 December 1960 in his sleep at his home in Callington, Cornwall, England. He was 80.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foot, Isaac
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Bodmin
1880 births
1960 deaths
Isaac
Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was the ...
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Presidents of the Liberal Party (UK)
UK MPs 1922–1923
UK MPs 1923–1924
UK MPs 1929–1931
UK MPs 1931–1935
English Methodists
Methodist local preachers
English book and manuscript collectors
Mayors of Plymouth
Politicians from Plymouth, Devon
Government ministers of the United Kingdom
20th-century English politicians