Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan
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Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan (6 June 1915 – 18 January 1995[1]) was a Lithuanian-British industrialist and the founder of Kagan Textiles, of Elland, which made raincoats from the waterproof Gannex fabric he had invented. Gannex raincoats were worn by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, a friend of his. Kagan was sent to prison for ten months in 1980 for tax evasion.
Early life
He was born Juozapas Kaganas into a
The Nazis
Life in England
When the Nazis were ousted from Lithuania, Joseph and Margaret Kagan made their way to Bucharest and from there, to Britain. From 1946 he settled in Huddersfield and began work as a blanket weaver. He founded Kagan Textiles Ltd. at a small factory opposite Elland Town Hall.
In 1951, Kagan invented
Huddersfield was the home town of Harold Wilson,
When Wilson resigned as Prime Minister in March 1976, Kagan was made a life peer as Baron Kagan, of Elland in the County of West Yorkshire,[4] in the 1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, taking the Labour Party whip.
Kagan was later charged with tax evasion, though the formal charges were styled as "theft" (of barrels of indigo dye) from his, by then, former company and "false accounting", to comply with extradition treaties which did not cover tax offences. After a stay in Tel Aviv, he was arrested in Paris and extradited to Britain.[1] On 12 December 1980, he was convicted of four counts of theft. He was fined £375,000 and served a ten-month sentence, first in Armley, then in Rudgate open prison, Yorkshire. He lost his knighthood,[5] but his peerage could not be forfeited. It was also revealed around this time that Kagan had been friendly with Richardas Vaygauskas, a former official at the Russian embassy, who was known to be a KGB agent. However, Tam Dalyell in his 1995 obituary of Kagan, believed that he had maintained such contacts to assist relatives in Vilnius; Vaygauskas was also from Lithuania.[1]
After his release from custody, Kagan returned to the House of Lords and spoke on prison reform. In 1994 his health deteriorated, and he died peacefully in his London apartment the following year, aged 79.
Family
His son Daniel Kagan was a Democratic member of the Colorado House of Representatives.[6]
Arms
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References
- ^ a b c d e f g Dalyell, Tam (19 January 1995). "Obituaries: Lord Kagan". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
- ^ "No. 45239". The London Gazette. 27 November 1970. p. 13037.
- ^ Anderson, Paul; Davey, Kevin (18 October 2013). "Labour traitors?". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
- ^ "No. 46951". The London Gazette. 2 July 1976. p. 9167.
- ^ "No. 48599". The London Gazette. 1 May 1981. p. 6229.
- ^ "Rep. Kagan's Biography Vague and Vanishing". The Colorado Observer. Archived from the original on 30 August 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1985.
Sources
- John A. Hargreaves. "Kagan, Joseph, Baron Kagan (1915–1995)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)