Foulk, George Clayton, 1856-1893

U.S. Naval officer.

George Clayton Foulk (1856-1893) served as naval attaché to the first U.S. legation sent to Korea in 1883 and was chargé d'affaires in Seoul from 1885 until 1887. Subsequently, he was a businessman in Japan and then a university professor of mathematics in Kyoto.

George Clayton Foulk (1856-1893) served as naval attaché to the first U.S. legation sent to Korea in 1883 and was chargé d'affaires in Seoul from 1885 until 1887. Subsequently, he was a businessman in Japan and then a university professor of mathematics in Kyoto.

Biographical Sketch

George Clayton Foulke, born in Marietta, Pennsylvania, in 1856, was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1876 and served for two years in the Far East. Following a trip across Siberia in 1882, he accepted a post at the Naval Library in Washington, D.C. In 1884 he was appointed Naval Attache to the American Legation in Korea, and with the resignation of the minister in 1885 he became chief United States representative at the court of the Korean king. Although he was invited to become the personal advisor to that monarch, Foulke resigned his commission in 1887 and with his Japanese wife took up residence at Kyoto. The two years 1888-1890 were spent in the employ of the American Trading Company at Yokohama, following which he accepted a position as professor of mathematics at Doshisha College, Kyoto, where he remained until his death, in 1893.