Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

had purchased the ‘second book’ outright and were keeping it ‘in reserve’. In fact it was unpublishable. Foster also harps on about ‘the mess Jardine and Larwood made of things in Australia four years ago. Thank goodness Allen is playing square in Australia at the moment. He should bring back The Ashes.’ He didn’t of course. Some time after 1932 Foster left London and returned to Birmingham. In 1933 he occupied a luxury flat at 111 Hagley Road West, Quinton. He shared this with three females, one of whom was his wife, Norah Gladys Foster, by then the mother of three children, who had allegedly been estranged from her husband three years earlier. The other occupants were Annie Rose Davis, perhaps born in Cheltenham in 1871, and Annie Gertrude James, probably born in London in 1899, both probably domestic staff. By 1934 he was living with Norah Foster at No.1 in a block of 21 flats at Westfield Hall on Hagley Road. It is near the Chad Valley area and it is possible, though unlikely, that the wrecked motor-cycle legend mentioned in Chapter Eight had some substance and that somehow and for some reason he carted the bike to his new Birmingham address. By 1935 Norah had gone, having been replaced by Ada Ashen, probably born at Northend in the parish of Ratley in Warwickshire in 1902, presumably ‘a domestic’. Ada was still with Foster in 1940 but died in 1943. Going back ‘home’ was not the happy return Foster would have hoped for. He continued living beyond his means, thereby running up debts. Inevitably this road led to disaster and in 1936 he was forced to file for bankruptcy, with a Receiving Order made against him. The Public Examination, in front of Registrar Glanfield was heard on 2 September 1936 in Birmingham County Court. Foster was represented by Mr T.F.Mason, of solicitors Glaisyer, Porter and Mason. Foster attributed his failure to ‘betting on horses and dog racing and extravagance in living.’ His age was given as 47 and the statement of affairs showed gross liabilities of £631 8s 4d, with £628 12s 9d expected to rank for dividend. Assets were expected to produce £27 4s 5d leaving a deficit of £601 8s 4d. 68 The Registrar heard that for twenty years before 1928, with the exception of a short period of war service, Foster was employed by the family clothing firm Foster Brothers, 69 latterly as a superintendent of ten branch shops at £4,000 per year. Owing to differences he left the firm and until January 1930 he received an allowance of £2,000 per year. Since that time, on his becoming separated from his wife, his allowance had been reduced to £1,100, with the balance going to his estranged wife and children. He had been betting on horse and dog racing for twenty years and he estimated a loss of £500 on betting during the past two years. A bookmaker was the petitioning creditor. The unsecured liabilities included The shambolic 1930s 106 68 £601 is worth around £22,500 in 2011 values. 69 This was not quite accurate since, until the death of his father in 1914, Foster had worked for Wilkinson and Riddell in central Birmingham, a firm with no connection with Foster Brothers (Clothing) Limited.