Charles Foxcroft

Captain Charles Talbot Foxcroft (1868 – 11 February 1929) 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 Liberals 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. Foxcroft was selected as the Conservative candidate in the resulting by-election, and was elected unopposed on 15 October. Parliament was dissolved only five weeks later, on 21 November, and at the general election in December the Bath constituency 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. Foxcroft was returned as a "Coalition Conservative", with a majority of nearly 50% over his sole opponent, a Labour Party candidate. 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 at that 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.

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 Somerset. He inherited the estate on the death of his father.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Foxcroft
• Archival material relating to Charles Foxcroft listed at the UK National Archives

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