Thomas Oliphant Foster was born in Ravenscourt, Middlesex England on 21 August 1882 and was articled to Ernest Carritt (c.1848-1908) from 1899 to 1905. He also attended the Architectural Association Schools in London. He then worked as an assistant to Thomas Frank Green (1875-1934) and in various architectural offices in London. He qualified as an architect in 1912 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1913 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1914.
He commenced independent practice as architect in London, England in 1906. Between c.1910-c.1913 he was in partnership with Percy Wells Lovell (1878-1950) and Thomas Arthur Lodge (1888-1967) in the London-based architectural firm Foster, Lovell & Lodge. In 1914 he left England to take up the post of Assistant Consulting Architect to the Government of India, and by 1916 had been appointed Consultant Architect to the Government of Burma in Rangoon [now Yangon, Myanmar]
Foster lived in Rangoon, Burma until 1932 when he returned to London. His address was given as The Rookery, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex in 1939. He died in Staines, Middlesex on 12 March 1942.
Port Trust Offices in Rangoon, Burma [now Yangon, Myanmar] (1926-30); Convention Hall, Yangon University in Yangon, Myanmar (1927); The New Law Courts [Kempinski Hotel] in Rangoon, Burma [now Yangon, Myanmar] (1927-31); Rangoon branch of the National Bank of India in Rangoon, Burma [now Yangon, Myanmar] (1930).
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001