Captain Charles Talbot Foxcroft (25 November 1868 – 11 February 1929) Obituary in ''Bath Chronicle and Herald'', 16 February 1929, p. 9 was a British Conservative Party politician. 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 1918 to 1923, and from 1924 until his death.

Political career

Foxcroft first stood for election to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

at the

1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting e ...

, when he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Frome division of

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. 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. In September 1918, Lord Alexander Thynne, the Conservative MP for Bath, was killed in action in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Foxcroft was selected as the Conservative candidate in the resulting

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

, and was elected unopposed on 15 October. Parliament was dissolved only five weeks later, on 21 November. Under the terms of the

Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The act extended the franchise in pa ...

Bath was reduced from two seats in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

to one. However the parties in the Liberal-Conservative

Coalition Government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

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. He was re-elected in a three-way contest in

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

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

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

and his wife Wilhelmina Colquhoun née Robertson-Glasgow. He inherited the estate on the death of his father.

References

Works

External links

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Portrait at Art UK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foxcroft, Charles T 1868 births 1929 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1924–1929 Politics of Bath, Somerset People from Bath and North East Somerset