Frank Foley - First World War

First World War

Foley was in Hamburg studying philosophy, when the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in August 1914. He made his way through Germany towards northern Holland by borrowing a military uniform and posing as a Prussian Army officer. Exchanging the uniform for civilian clothes, he managed to get to Emden, and with the help of a local priest found some fishermen who ferried him into neutral Holland. He made his way back to Highbridge and took a job as an assistant master at Bengeo Preparatory School while considering what to do next.

At the end of 1915 he decided to join the army, and entered the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps, originally restricted to barristers before the rules were relaxed to include university and public school entrants. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Hertfordshire Regiment in January 1917, and was posted to France and the Western Front, where he was promoted to acting Captain. He was wounded in the chest while fighting near Ecoust-Saint-Mein and evacuated back to England.

Foley had been lucky to escape; within a few hours savage fighting, the strength of his unit had been cut by two thirds. The bullet had damaged his left lung, and after convalescence and recuperation, he was ruled no longer fit for front-line duty and sent on leave.