Lives in Cricket No 18 - FR Foster

professional psychiatrist admits of the likelihood. GPI is a mental disorder occurring in tertiary syphilis and was once known as dementia paralytica. In its last stages it can cause damage to the heart and blood vessels (thus cardiovascular degeneration) and brain, and progressive paralysis. Early symptoms include depression, personality change and lack of inhibitions. The disease may take many years to develop. I am not suggesting that GPI was the major reason for Frank Foster’s physical and mental collapse, and his death, but it ticks some boxes. In any event Frank Foster died at St Andrew’s on 3 May 1958. Foster’s remains were interred in the family plot at Brandwood End Cemetery, King’s Heath, Birmingham on 9 May 1958, after a short service in the cemetery chapel conducted by Canon Norman Power. 76 A small family representation was there, including his children, but no-one from the cricket world in general. Perhaps it had been convenient to ‘forget’. Certainly Warwickshire County Cricket Club seems to have held this view. The Yearbook had a deserved reputation for honouring its departed players, and even better-known or long-serving members. Yet the passing of Frank Foster – arguably its greatest-ever cricketer, probably its finest and most successful captain, the club’s first cricket hero, the man who in a playing sense had put the county on the map – was, apart from a few lines, ignored. If it wasn’t an editorial oversight, then surely it was inexcusable small-mindedness. 77 And winter fought her battle strife and won 115 St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton. Foster was an in-patient here from 1950 until his death in 1958. 76 Canon Power was himself a good cricketer. Once, in partnership with his brother Alan he added nearly 200 for the Birmingham Clergy against ‘The Doctors’ at Edgbaston. 77 A few years later however a new road near the Edgbaston ground was named ‘Foster Way’. On the same estate we find ‘Dollery Drive’, ‘Wyatt Close’, ‘Hollies Croft’ and ‘Wickets Tower’. Retaining the cricket theme, nearby is ‘Calthorpe Road’ while a good walk away is ‘Shilton Grove.’