Philip Fothergill

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

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.

[9] 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.

The combined Liberal-Tory vote in Middlesbrough West would have beaten Labour's total but the Conservatives were so far ahead of Fothergill it is understandable they were unwilling to stand aside for him.

[12] Fothergill's final attempt to enter the House of Commons came at Oldham West in 1951, when he lost his deposit.

Fothergill later maintained this stance, particularly in respect of the proposed Liberal-Liberal National merger talks which were progressing in Scotland during 1946–1947 the terms of which Fothergill, together with party leader Clement Davies and leader in the House of Lords, Herbert Samuel felt were totally unacceptable.

[22] Jo Grimond later said of Fothergill that it was tragedy he never got into the House of Commons or that Life Peerages were not invented in his lifetime.

[23] Reflecting his radical, nonconformist background, Fothergill was a strong advocate of temperance reform and the evils of alcohol.