1422 Sir Michael Foster

Constituency  :  London  University  1900-06  ( Liberal  Unionist  )

Sir  Michael  took  over  from  Sir  John  Lubbock, who  was  elevated  to  the  peerage,  at  London  University.

Sir  Michael  was  a  surgeon's  son  from  Huntingdonshire. He  was  educated  at  Huntingdon Grammar  School  and  University  College,  London. He  graduated  in  medicine  and  returned  to Huntingdon  to  practice  but  after  eight  years  he  returned  to  UCL  to  teach  practical physiology. He  became  a  professor  in  1869  then  a  year  later  switched  to  Cambridge  where  he  became the  first  Chair  of  Physiology. He  wrote  the  standard  Textbook  of  Physiology  in  1876.  He  was  also  a  keen  botanist  who  collected  and  bred  irises. He  was  knighted  in  1899.

Sir  Michael  was  uncomfortable  in  Parliament  as  his  views  were  closer  to  Liberalism  than  Unionism. He  disliked  the  religious  provisions  in  the  1902  Education  Act.

Sir  Michael  was  defeated  in  1906.

He  died  in  1907  aged  70.