Joseph Foster

Research Topic

Patrick Clavell Blount (1906-1999) and the History of Fluoridation in the UK.

My research focuses on the life and work of the anti-fluoridation campaigner Patrick Clavell Blount. Blount was a prolific writer, communicator and activist, who left behind an extensive personal archive. Using his archive as an entry point, my project will explore the diversity within the anti-fluoridation movement from the 1960s until Blount's death in 1999.

Historians have examined certain disparate groups, such as the British Housewives League and their motivations for opposing the introduction of fluoride into the water supply, but there has yet to be an account of how the movement changed after the 1960s, and the relationships between many of these organisations. Furthermore, I will present case studies of how the town councils and medical authorities responded to the anti-fluoridation movement, and seek to explain why the anti-fluoridation movement has continued to persist into the present day.

I graduated with a first-class BA in History at Oxford (2023), and I was awarded an MSc in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology (2024), during which I wrote my dissertation on the role played by dental mechanics in the development of post-war dental services, and the role of the British Army in promoting dental care amongst the British people.

Supervisor: Mark Harrison and Matthew Landrus