Charles Foxcroft

Captain Charles Talbot Foxcroft (25 November 1868 – 11 February 1929) [1] was a British Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath from 1918 to 1923, and from 1924 until his death.

Political career

Foxcroft first stood for election to Parliament at the 1906 general election, when he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Frome division of Somerset. Frome was a consistently Liberal seat, although the Liberal majorities were slim, and Foxcroft lost again in Frome at the elections in January 1910 and December 1910.[2]

In September 1918, Lord Alexander Thynne, the Conservative MP for Bath, was killed in action in World War I.[3] Foxcroft was selected as the Conservative candidate in the resulting by-election, and was elected unopposed on 15 October.[2] Parliament was dissolved only five weeks later, on 21 November.[4] Under the terms of the Representation of the People Act 1918 Bath was reduced from two seats in the House of Commons to one. However the parties in the Liberal-Conservative Coalition Government agreed an electoral pact, and no Liberal candidate stood in Bath in 1918. At the general election in December Foxcroft therefore only faced a Labour Party candidate, and won the election with 75% of votes cast.[5] He was re-elected in a three-way contest in 1922, but at the 1923 general election he faced only one opponent, the Liberal barrister Frank Raffety. Raffety took the seat, but parliament was dissolved less than a year later. At the general election in October 1924, Foxcroft retook the seat with 56% of the votes in a 3-way contest.[5]

Following his election in 1924 Foxcroft served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Assistant Postmaster General, a position he held until his death.[1] He died in office in February 1929, aged 60.[6]

Family

Foxcroft was the son of Edward Talbot Day Foxcroft (c.1837–1911), born Edward Talbot Day Jones, the owner of Hinton House at Hinton Charterhouse in Somerset and his wife Wilhelmina Colquhoun née Robertson-Glasgow. He inherited the estate on the death of his father.[7]

References
  1. Obituary in Bath Chronicle and Herald, 16 February 1929, p. 9
  2. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 379, 66. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
  3. "Thynne, Lord Alexanger George". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  4. "Prorogation". House of Commons Debates 21 November 1918 vol 110 columns 3479-80. Hansard 1803–2005. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  5. Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 74. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  6. "House of Commons constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons page. Archived from the original on 17 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  7. "History of Hinton House". Hinton Charterhouse website. Archived from the original on 28 February 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2009.

Works
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Lord Alexander Thynne
Sir Charles Hunter, Bt		 Member of Parliament for Bath
October 1918 – 1923
With: Sir Charles Hunter, Bt to December 1918		 Succeeded by
Frank Raffety
Preceded by
Frank Raffety		 Member of Parliament for Bath
1924–1929		 Succeeded by
Hon. Charles Baillie-Hamilton


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