Philip Staveley Foster (11 July 1865 – 5 March 1933) was a

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician in the United Kingdom.

Early life

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 Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

. The firm had been founded by Philip's great-grandfather. He went to Eton College in 1879 and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

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 The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a unit of the British Army. Raised in 1794 following Prime Minister William Pitt's order to raise volunteer bodies of men to defend Great Britain from foreign invasion, the Staffordshir ...

, where he was promoted to

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

in 1900.

Parliamentary career

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 Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-wes ...

in a by-election in June 1901, a seat he held until the election of 1906. Re-elected in 1909, he held the seat until its abolition in 1918.

Public life

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.

Family

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

* Obituary, "Mr. P. S. Foster", ''The Times'', 5 March 1933.
Hansard – Contributions by Philip Foster in the House of Commons

External links

* 1865 births 1933 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 Staffordshire Yeomanry officers People from Withyham {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1860s-stub