Philip Fothergill

Charles Philip Fothergill (23 February 1906 – 31 January 1959) was an English woollen manufacturer and Liberal Party politician.

Fothergill was born in Dewsbury into a radical, nonconformist, Yorkshire family. He was educated at the Wheelwright School for Boys, in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and Bootham School in York. He never married.

The Fothergill family were closely connected to the Yorkshire textile industry and Philip followed the family tradition. He went into business as a woollen manufacturer and merchant, eventually rising to become chairman and managing director of C P Fothergill & Co. Ltd of Dewsbury. He was also a governing director of Fothergill (Edinburgh) Ltd. In his work he became acutely aware of a series of labour, welfare and trade union issues and this prompted a strong interest in labour economics which he was to put to use in business and politics. Fothergill was also a Director of the newspaper the Dewsbury Reporter and other papers in the area which had Liberal leanings

Fothergill developed an interest in Liberal politics as a young man, serving on the National Executive of the party as early as the 1920s. His business interests were in Scotland, where he had large commercial and industrial interests north of the River Tweed as well as in Yorkshire and his local political activities reflected this geography. He was a Liberal candidate for Parliament three times although he was never elected. He first contested Forfarshire at the 1945 general election. In 1947 he expressed an interest in becoming Liberal candidate for Orkney and Shetland at a time when Jo Grimond had still not finally decided to try his luck there again.

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