Richard Witty Foster was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician. Foster was born in Goodmanham

Goodmanham

Goodmanham is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately to the north-east of Market Weighton...

, Pocklington

Pocklington

Pocklington is a small market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, approximately east of York....

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and educated at Prospect House, Tockwith

Tockwith

Tockwith is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England, near the town of Wetherby and the city of York. There has been a village on the site since at least 1086 when Tocvi was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tockwith's greatest claim to fame is being used as a...

 and apprenticed to a draper. He emigrated to South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 in 1880 and established a business as a grocer and general provider at Quorn

Quorn, South Australia

Quorn is a township and railhead in the Flinders Ranges in the north of South Australia, 39 km northeast of Port Augusta. At the 2006 census, Quorn had a population of 1068.Quorn is the home of the Flinders Ranges Council local government area...

. He married Elizabeth Lees in September 1884. He was elected to Quorn council

Flinders Ranges Council

Flinders Ranges Council is a local government area in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.The council area is approximately 100 km from north to south, and 45 km from east to west, with a total area of 4,198 square kilometres....

 in 1887 and was mayor from 1890 to 1893.

Political career

In 1893, Foster was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly

South Australian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...

 as the member for Newcastle. He was Commissioner for Public Works from 1899 to 1904 and Minister for Industry from 1902 to 1904 in the liberal governments of Frederick Holder

Frederick Holder

Sir Frederick William Holder KCMG was the 19th Premier of South Australia and a prominent member of the inaugural Australian Commonwealth Parliament, including the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.-Life:...

 and John Jenkins

John Jenkins (Australian politician)

John Greeley Jenkins was an American-Australian politician and Premier of South Australia.Jenkins was the fourth son of Evan Jenkins and Mary Davis of South Wales, was born in Pennsylvania. He was educated at the Wyoming Seminary, Pa., and after working on his father's farm, became in 1872 a...

. He resigned from the ministry in 1904, but still supported Jenkins until it fell in 1905 and was then Commissioner for Public Works and Minister for Agriculture in the conservative administration of Richard Butler

Richard Butler (Australian politician)

Sir Richard Butler was an Australian politician and Premier of South Australia.-Early life:Butler was born at Stadhampton, near Oxford, England, elder son of Richard Butler, pastoralist, and his wife Mary Eliza, née Sadler. The family emigrated to South Australia, arriving in Adelaide on 8 March...

, but lost his seat in 1906.

Foster won the seat of Wakefield

Division of Wakefield

The Division of Wakefield is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of South Australia. It is located north of Adelaide, incorporating the outer northern suburbs of Salisbury and Elizabeth, and extending north as far as Clare. It covers the east coast of the Gulf St Vincent north of...

 in the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 at a 1909 by-election for the Commonwealth Liberal Party

Commonwealth Liberal Party

The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, shortly after federation....

. In December 1921, he was appointed Minister for Works and Railways

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport is the Hon Anthony Albanese. On 3 December 2007 he replaced the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, the Hon Mark Vaile, who held office since August 2006, and the Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads, the Hon Jim...

 in the Hughes

Fifth Hughes Ministry

The Fifth Hughes Ministry was the sixteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 4 February 1920 to 9 February 1923.Nationalist Party of Australia*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister...

 ministry, but was dropped from the ministry in February 1923 by Stanley Bruce

Stanley Bruce

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...

. He refused to join the South Australian Country Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 and was beaten by its candidate, Maurice Collins

Maurice Collins

Maurice Collins was an Australian politician. Born in Mount Bryan, South Australia, he was educated in that state before becoming a grazier, landowner and sheep breeder. He was involved in local politics, sitting on Terowie Shire Council and Burra Council...

 in the 1928 elections

Australian federal election, 1928

Federal elections were held in Australia on 17 November 1928. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

.

Foster died in the Adelaide suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 of St Peters, survived by his wife, three daughters and a son.