William Edward Forster, PC, FRS (11 July 1818 – 5 April 1886) was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman.

She was not a Quaker and Forster was formally read out of meeting for marrying her, but the Friends who were commissioned to announce the sentence "shook hands and stayed to luncheon".

In 1846–47, he accompanied his father to Ireland as distributor of the Friends' relief fund for the Great Irish Famine in Connemara, and the state of the country made a deep impression on him.

He took a prominent part in parliament in the debates on the American Civil War, and in 1865 was made Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in Lord John Russell's ministry.

He showed knowledge of the real condition of common people, and foreshadowed Radical legislation, heralding the start of a campaign of educational reform.

In 1868, when the Liberal party returned to office, Forster was appointed Vice-president of the Council, with the duty of preparing a government measure for national education.

The Elementary Education Bill was introduced on 17 February 1870 and school boards were set up with elected representatives (for example, Charles Reed in London) the same year where possible.

The government made its rejection a question of confidence, and the amendment was withdrawn; but the result was the insertion of the Cowper-Temple clause (which prohibited the use of distinctive religious formularies in a rate-supported school) as a compromise before the bill passed.

On 24 January 1881, he introduced a Coercion Bill in the House of Commons, to deal with the growth of the Land League, and in the course of his speech declared it to be "the most painful duty" he had ever had to perform.

The Irish Party used every opportunity to oppose the act, and Forster was kept constantly on the move between Dublin and London, conducting his campaign and defending it in the House of Commons.

[6] During the remaining years of his life, Forster's political record covered various interesting subjects, but his efforts in Ireland threw them all into shadow.