Jeanne Hoban, known after her marriage as Jeanne Moonesinghe, was a British Trotskyist who became active in trade unionism and politics in Sri Lanka.
21 Facts About Jeanne Hoban
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Jeanne Hoban was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka.
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Jeanne Hoban attended Slough High School for Girls, where she became Head Girl in 1942.
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Jeanne Hoban fell out early with Gerry Healy, who was most prominent in the RCP at the time, but remained close to Ted Grant.
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Jeanne Hoban was associated with the group around Tony Cliff, the so-called State-Caps after their characterisation of the USSR as state-capitalist.
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Jeanne Hoban married Anil Moonesinghe in 1948 and they moved into a houseboat called Red October, which they built together, on the Thames near Marlow.
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Jeanne Hoban was elected to the Executive of the Labour Leagues of Youth, later being put on the list of Labour Party Parliamentary candidates.
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In Sri Lanka, Jeanne Hoban joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and worked in the Lanka Estate Workers' Union, which organised labourers on the tea and rubber plantations.
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Jeanne Hoban joined the Lake House group of newspapers as a journalist, recruited by chief editor Esmond Wickremasinghe along with other left-oriented intellectuals such as Herbert Keuneman and Regi Siriwardena.
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Jeanne Hoban had a column in The Observer and worked on the Jana magazine.
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Jeanne Hoban formed a journalists' branch of the Ceylon Mercantile Union at Lake House, much to the chagrin of the management which had strenuously upheld a no unions policy.
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Jeanne Hoban was elected national Assistant Secretary of union, a post she held for several years.
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In need of employment, Jeanne Hoban turned to teaching at the Terence de Zilva School in Kolonnawa.
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Jeanne Hoban subsequently joined the Ghana High Commission as a press officer, but returned to teaching at the Castle Street School in Borella, St Michael's Polwatte and St Paul's Milagiriya.
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Jeanne Hoban went on to edit the left-wing Patriot newspaper.
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Jeanne Hoban was foreign news editor of the Nation newspaper.
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Jeanne Hoban became active in the Kantha Kavaya, a circle of leftist women led by Tamara Kumari Ilangaratne.
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Jeanne Hoban was seconded to the Curriculum Development Centre, where she edited its bulletin.
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Jeanne Hoban was associated with a group of educationists led by Douglas Walatara, who wanted to teach English through the medium of the students' mother tongue, the indirect method.
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Jeanne Hoban returned to England for a short time and was active in the Anti-Nazi League and the trade union movement.
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Jeanne Hoban died in 1997 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.