Relatives
Research:
From The Berkhamstedian 1911-12
Foster – on March 3rd, 1911, at Berkhamsted, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry James Foster, V.D.[1] (1854-58)
“A member of one of the oldest families in the town of Berkhamsted, where he has spent the whole of his useful life, Colonel Foster commenced as a clerk on the London and North-Western Railway, and early succeeded to the brewery business carried on as the Swan Brewery. He was for a time a member of the Berkhamsted Urban District Council, and always took a keen interest in the welfare of the town. For over thirty-nine years he was a member of the old Volunteers, and was the first man to take the oath in front of Colonel Smith Dorrien (the father of General Sir Horace Smith Dorrien. That was in December, 1859, and at the time of his death he held in his possession the first inscribed Roll of the old 7th Hertfordshire Volunteers. He was always proud of pointing to the fact that ‘E’ Company produced two Lieutenant-Colonels who started as Privates, the other being Lieutenant-Colonel S.R. Timson. The Volunteer movement had his strongest support from his earliest years, and in 1884 he proudly led his Company in review order before the late Queen Victoria, at Windsor. How many of the old Volunteers that stood at their Colonel’s grave remembered the battalion drills at Boxmoor and his kindness to them on those occasions? He always attended the funerals of the men of ‘E’ Company, amongst them being that of Chaplain – the Reverend A. Loxley, Charles Weedon, Walter Purton, Harvey Holloway and William Foskett. On Wednesday he was laid with his comrades. For fifty years he was attached to the Berkhamsted Dramatic Company – in fact he spoke the prologue of the first production, and for twenty-five years he held the position of President. For about twenty-five years he was a Governor of Berkhamsted School”
– The Berkhamsted Gazette
The School and the Old Berkhamstedians’ Association were represented at the funeral.
Henry James is buried in plot 240 along with his wife, Rosa Foster (1843-1903) and Edward Charles Foster, who died 12th February 1906, aged 20, their only son.
There is also an Edward Foster, buried in the adjacent plot 239. He died 18th April 1870, aged 24, married to Marion. He was probably Henry’s younger brother.
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Berkhamsted Railway Station
Berkhamsted School
Personalities of the Past
Memorial Symbolism