Gilbert Arthur Foan (1887 – 21 February 1935) was a British hairdresser and socialist politician. He wrote several influential books on hair and make-up. Born in Yeovil to a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family, Foan received an elementary education before becoming an agricultural labourer. By 1911, he was living in Saffron Walden, where he became the secretary of the local branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). He was also active in the National Agricultural Labourers' and Rural Workers' Union, and was a leading figure in its East Anglian strike, from 1912 until 1914. He married Edith in 1914, and the couple relocated to Croydon, where Foan opened a tobacconists' shop, where he also worked as a hairdresser. During World War I, he was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

, and was sentenced to hard labour at Wormwood Scrubs. In April 1919, he was released due to his poor health. Foan became the chair of the Croydon branch of the ILP, and also of the local Labour Party, to which the ILP was affiliated. He was the Labour Party candidate for Croydon North at the

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

and

1929 United Kingdom general election The 1929 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 30 May 1929 and resulted in a hung parliament. It stands as the fourth of six instances under the secret ballot, and the first of three under universal suffrage, in which a party ha ...

s, taking a distant second place on each occasion. He served on the Croydon Board of Guardians from 1922 until 1930, and on Croydon Town Council from 1926. At the

1931 United Kingdom general election Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, he instead contested Chelsea, taking second place but only 17% of the vote. In 1926/27, Foan served as the president of the Hairdressers' Trade Parliamentary Committee, later serving as its secretary, and also as registrar of the Hairdressers' Registration Council. He wrote frequent articles for the ''Hairdressing Times and Record'', ''The Hairdresser'', and ''The Hairdressers' Weekly'', arguing in favour of hairdressers receiving training through colleges. In 1931, he published ''The Art and Craft of Hairdressing'', while with H. Stanley Bedgrove he co-authored two books on cosmetics: ''Paint, Powder and Patches'', and ''Hair-dyes and Hair-dyeing: Chemistry and Technique''. Foan also wrote on criminology, and gave frequent public speeches about socialism. He held membership of the

No More War Movement The No More War Movement was the name of two pacifist organisations, one in the United Kingdom and one in New Zealand. British Group The British No More War Movement (NMWM) was founded in 1921 as a pacifist and socialist successor to the No-Consc ...

, and of the South Suburban Co-operative Society. He died early in 1935, and was cremated at West Norwood Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foan, Gilbert 1887 births 1935 deaths British hairdressers Councillors in Greater London English trade unionists English writers Independent Labour Party politicians Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates People from Yeovil