Vere Foster

Vere Henry Louis Foster (or Lewis) (25 April 1819 – 21 December 1900) was an Irish philanthropist, educationalist and free thinker. After following his Irish father into the British diplomatic service, with postings in South America, in Ireland he was moved by the Great Famine to organise relief efforts and to improve the conditions of passage for emigrants. These he, himself, experienced travelling steerage to the United States. Later, he supported national schools in Ireland and was first president of what is today Ireland largest teachers' union the Irish National Teachers' Organisation. He died in Belfast where he had been working for the relief of the sick and the poor. Early life Foster was in Copenhagen on 25 April 1819, where his Anglo-Irish father, Sir Augustus John Foster, was the British minister. His mother, Albinia Jane was the granddaughter of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire. He was educated at Eton College, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 30 May 1838. Leaving Oxford without a degree, Foster joined the diplomatic service on an unpaid basis. From 1842 to 1843 he was attached to the diplomatic mission of Sir Henry Ellis in Rio de Janeiro, and from 1845 to 1847 to that of Sir William Gore Ouseley in Montevideo. He alarmed his superiors, and his father, by the enthusiasm he evinced for Garibaldi and his Redshirts in the Uruguayan Civil War. The Foreign Office made no further use of his services after it ordered the Montevideo consulate closed in June 1847. Response to the Irish famine When news reached England of the Irish famine, Foster was sent to report the effects on his family's estate, Glyde Court in County Louth. Their tenants were not the worst effected by the potato blight, but Foster was appalled by the numbers of starving people staggering along the roads, many trying to reach the ports in the hopes of finding passage to England or the United States. In August 1848, his father who been tortured by religious doubt, committed suicide. Returning again to Ireland, with his eldest brother Frederick, he toured the country and was persuaded to devote the his junior share of his father's fortune (Frederick inherited the estate) to relieve the distress they witnessed.