David Foster (inventor)

Foster was born in Kingston upon Hull in 1848. Since a young age he had a keen interest in the grocery trade and his family links led him to move to Selby in North Yorkshire in the 1880s.^{[1][better source needed]}

In 1890 while living in Selby, Foster, influenced by lawn tennis (which at the time was popular in a lot of back gardens), filed a patent for his new sport in England. His original table tennis set consisted of strung rackets, a cloth-covered rubber ball, large side nets along the table, and a wooden fence surrounding the table's perimeter.^{[2][unreliable source?]} Despite James Devonshire having already made a patent in 1885, he ended up abandoning it, making Foster the official creator.^{[3][unreliable source?]}

After living in Selby for almost 40 years, Foster moved to Streatham, London, where he died in 1928 at the age of 80.^[1]