Isaac Foot
Encyclopedia
Early life
Isaac Foot was born in PlymouthPlymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, the son of a carpenter and undertaker, 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 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
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, and in 1907 was elected to Plymouth City Council, which he remained a member of 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
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
's tercentenary.
Parliamentary career
Foot first stood for parliament in TotnesTotnes (UK Parliament constituency)
Totnes is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....
in January 1910, losing to the sitting Liberal Unionist, F. B. Mildmay
Francis Bingham Mildmay, 1st Baron Mildmay of Flete
Francis Bingham Mildmay, 1st Baron Mildmay of Flete DL, TD was initially a Liberal and later a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 until 1922 when he was raised to the peerage....
He then stood twice for Bodmin
Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)
Bodmin was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall from 1295 until 1983. Initially, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England and later the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 1868 general...
, but was unsuccessful. At Plymouth Sutton in the by-election of November 1919
Plymouth Sutton by-election, 1919
The Plymouth Sutton by-election, 1919 was a parliamentary by-election held on 28 November 1919 for the British House of Commons constituency of Sutton in the city of Plymouth, Devon....
he was beaten by Nancy Astor, who became the first woman MP in Britain and a lifelong friend of Foot's.
Foot was elected as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Bodmin
Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)
Bodmin was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall from 1295 until 1983. Initially, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England and later the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 1868 general...
at a by-election in February 1922
Bodmin by-election, 1922
The Bodmin by-election, 1922 was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Bodmin held on 24 February 1922.-Vacancy:...
, 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
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
, when the Liberals took all five Cornish seats. He held the seat until he lost again in November 1935.
Foot served on the Round Table Conference 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".
In 1931 he became Minister of Mines
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. Responsibility for mines now lies with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry....
in the National Government, but resigned in protest at the protectionist Ottawa Agreements.
He fought two more elections, at St Ives
St Ives (UK Parliament constituency)
St. Ives is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...
in 1937, and Tavistock
Tavistock (UK Parliament constituency)
Tavistock was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Devon between 1330 and 1974. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the town of Tavistock; it returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, when its...
in 1945, losing both.
After Parliament
He became a Privy CounsellorPrivy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in 1937.
Foot served as Vice President of the Methodist Conference (1937–38) and as President of the Liberal Party (1947).
In 1945 he was chosen unanimously as Lord Mayor of Plymouth, despite not being a member of the council. Foot also served as Deputy-Chairman of the Cornwall Quarter Sessions
Quarter Sessions
The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire...
in 1945, and was Chairman from 1953 to 1955, a distinction rarely granted to a solicitor.
Exeter University 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 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.Four of the Foots' sons followed their father into public life.
- Sir Dingle FootDingle FootSir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, Q.C. was a British lawyer and politician, born in Plymouth, Devon.-Education and career:...
became a Liberal, later LabourLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, Member of Parliament and solicitor-general. - Hugh Foot, Baron CaradonHugh Foot, Baron CaradonHugh Mackintosh Foot, Baron Caradon, GCMG KCVO OBE PC was a British colonial administrator and diplomat who oversaw moves to independence in various colonies and was UK representative to the United Nations....
was a senior diplomat and member of the House of LordsHouse of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. - John Foot, Baron FootJohn Foot, Baron FootJohn Mackintosh Foot, Baron Foot was a Liberal politician and Life Peer.Foot was born in Plymouth, Devon, the son of Isaac Foot and the brother of Sir Dingle Foot, QC, Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon and Michael Foot. His nephew was the late journalist Paul Foot...
stood as a Liberal on several occasions for Parliament and became Baron Foot. - Michael FootMichael FootMichael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
became a major socialist intellectual, Member of Parliament and 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
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
, was a prominent campaigning journalist and political activist, being a solid member of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
(SWP).