One of the most prominent communist trade union leaders in the United Kingdom, he left office after being convicted of involvement in rigging an election.
[1] Foulkes gradually came to prominence in the ETU, initially becoming a shop steward, then serving on branch and district committees before working full-time for the union as an official based in Merseyside.
[1] In 1959, the union's general secretary, Frank Haxell, also a CPGB member, narrowly won a bid for re-election against Jock Byrne.
Byrne and Frank Chapple took Foulkes, Haxell and thirteen other CPGB members to court, alleging that the election had been fixed.
[3] Foulkes argued that he had no knowledge of any fraud and so should retain his position, but he lost a second court case in 1962 on the grounds that, given his oversight role, he should have been aware that the election was rigged.