Robert Noonan

Background

Robert Noonan was born on April 18, 1870, in Dublin, Ireland. He was the illegitimate son of Samuel Croker and Mary Noonan.

Career

Robert Noonan started his career at the age of sixteen when he moved to Liverpool and then to South Africa where he worked as a decorator, house-painter, and sign-painter. In 1895 he moved to Johannesburg, where he secured a well-paying job with a construction company. Later he became Secretary of the Transvaal Federated Building Trades Council. Soon he moved to Hastings, Sussex where he found work as a sign-painter, but at much lower wages and had to take part-time jobs. His health began to deteriorate and he started to write under the pen name Robert Tressell.

It took Noonan four years to write the long book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by hand. However, the manuscript was rejected by the three publishing houses. The rejections severely depressed him, and his daughter had to save the manuscript from being burnt. Noonan decided to move to Canada but when he reached Liverpool he was admitted to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, where he died of pulmonary tuberculosis. His daughter gave the manuscript of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists to writer Jessie Pope, who recommended it to her publisher. The book was published in 1914.

Achievements

• Robert Noonan, also known as Robert Tressell, was an Irish writer who was famous for his book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. This book has been cited as a factor in the landslide Labour victory in 1945. It has been taught in schools and universities and adapted for stage, television, and radio.
  
  Tressell's name has been used over the years by various groups and individuals, mainly in and around Hastings.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

    (The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic represe...)

    1914

Politics

Robert Noonan led a successful protest against the employment of black skilled labour in 1897. In 1898, he became a member of the Transvaal Executive Committee of the Centennial of 1798 Association. Later his political beliefs appeared to have moved rightwards. However, in 1905, when his designs of aircraft were rejected he turned leftwards once again.

Membership

Robert Noonan was a member of the Social Democratic Foundation.

Connections

Robert Noonan married Elizabeth Hartel in 1891. The marriage produced a daughter. Robert and Elizabeth divorced in 1895.

Father:

Samuel Croker

Samuel Croker was a senior member of the Royal Irish Constabulary.

Mother:

Mary Noonan

ex-wife:

Elizabeth Hartel

Daughter:

Kathleen Noonan

References

• One of the Damned: The Life and Times of Robert Tressell
  1973
• Attitudes to class in the English novel from Walter Scott to David Storey
  1979
• The adventures of a manuscript: Being the story of The ragged trousered philanthropists
  1956