He returned to England where he continued to work as a painter and decorator in Hastings and wrote his novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, probably between 1906 and 1910,[1] 'about exploitative employment when the only safety nets are charity, workhouse and grave.'

[2] Noonan was born in 37 Wexford Street, Dublin, Ireland,[3] the illegitimate son of Samuel Croker, a former Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who was by the time of the birth a retired Resident Magistrate.

He was recorded on the 1881 England census, under his step-father Sebastian Zumbühl's surname, living at 27 Elmore Street, Islington, London.

On 27 May 1890 he had broken into the dwelling house of his sister's employer, Charles Fay junior, shipping agent, Courtney Road, Great Crosby and stolen a quantity of silver and electro-plated articles.

It has been suggested that the failure of his marriage may have provided a sub-plot in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists that concerns Ruth Easton, who has a child by Alf Slyme.

One of those who helped plan the Johannesburg commemoration was an Irish immigrant called Arthur Griffith, and serving on the committee was an assayer of the mine, John MacBride.

[7] Noonan began to work as a painter in Hastings, Sussex, but at much lower wages and in far poorer conditions than he had experienced in South Africa.

In 1909 Noonan moved to a flat in London Road, Hastings and the SDP (formerly SDF) campaigned against councillors' dealings in the local gas and electricity companies.

[11] He wrote under the pen name Robert Tressell as he feared the socialist views expressed in the book would have him blacklisted.

He chose the surname Tressell as a play on the trestle table, an important part of a painter and decorator's kit.

In 1977, local socialists in conjunction with trade unions campaigned for and erected a memorial stone over the plot with the names of all buried there.

[17] Kathleen mentioned her father's novel in the presence of a visitor to the house where she worked,[18] writer Jessie Pope, who recommended it to her publisher, Grant Richards.

In April 1914, the publisher bought the rights to the book for £25, and it appeared in Britain, Canada and the United States later that year, in the Soviet Union in 1920, and in Germany in 1925.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists has been cited as a factor in the landslide Labour victory in 1945,[19] and even for the election of two non-Labour-endorsed Communist members of Parliament that same year.

It has been taught in schools and universities, and adapted for stage, television and radio, and readings have been performed at trade union meetings.

Declan Kiberd has argued that Pádraic Ó Conaire's seminal novel in Irish, Deoraíocht, has many parallels in its progressive socialism with Tressell's The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.