Career
He first played for Worcestershire in 1888 at the age of only 14 years old. The oldest of seven brothers who played cricket for Worcestershire, Harry Foster was a forceful right-handed middle-order batsman who acted as captain at Worcestershire for 11 of the first 12 season in which the county competed in the County Championship. Foster first played first-class cricket at Oxford.
Foster captained Worcestershire in the county"s very first Championship match in 1899 and led the side every season until 1910, except for 1901.
He scored 1,000 runs in a season eight times, and five times averaged more than 40 runs per innings. Among his 29 first-class centuries, he hit 216 against Somerset in 1903 — the first double hundred for Worcestershire in first-class cricket —and 215 against Warwickshire in 1908, both at Worcester.
He stood down as Worcestershire captain after 1910, but returned for the 1913 season. He then played intermittently until 1925, when he finally retired.
In 1907, 1912 and again after the First World War, he acted as an England selector.
In the next four years he represented Oxford and proved victorious in both Singles and Doubles. He also represented Oxford University at rackets for four years. Harry was the oldest of the seven sons of Henry Foster who in 1867, aged 23, joined the staff of Malvern College, a public school founded in 1865.
He made many contributions to sport in Malvern and was active in the making of the cricket pitch, acquiring a football field, swimming baths and racquets courts.
Of the 10 surviving children, there were 7 boys and 3 girls. All seven brothers born at Number 5 later joined their father"s house as pupils and for virtually 25 years held sway in the sporting arena.
Between them, the seven Foster brothers scored a total of 42,000 runs in First Class Cricket. The girls also played cricket and were exceptional golfers and Cicely played for England.
Harry Foster was land agent for the Stoke Edith and Prestwood estates of PH Foley.