Frank Foley

Major Francis Edward Foley CMG (November 1884, Highbridge, Somerset – May 8 1958, Stourbridge) was a British secret service agent.

Early life

He was the third son of a railway worker, and after attending local schools won a scholarship to the Lancashire Jesuit Stonyhurst College. He then went to a Catholic seminary in France to train as a priest but transferred to the Université de France in Poitiers to study classics. While there he reconsidered his vocation for the priesthood and decided instead to pursue an academic career. He travelled extensively in Europe, becoming fluent in both French and German, and was in Hamburg studying philosophy when Britain 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 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, where he was promoted to acting captain. He was wounded in the chest while fighting near Ecoust-St Mein and evacuated back to England. [cite book |last=Green |first=Tess |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Foley's war In: Past Somerset Times: Illustrated Studies of the Counties Rich History: v. 2 |year=2005 |publisher=Fiducia Press |location= |isbn=0 946217 22 X ] "Foley: The spy who saved 10,000 Jews". Michael Smith, Hodder, 1999. ISBN 0-340-76603-4.]

Pre-World War Two

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. By the time he returned, the story of his escape from Germany and his language skills had been noted by someone at the War Office. He was encouraged to apply for the Intelligence Corps . In July 1918 he became part of a small unit which was responsible for recruiting and running networks of agents in France, Belgium and Holland. After a few weeks he was sent to France, where after the Armistice he served for a short time in the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control in Cologne. After the running down of the Commission, he was subsequently offered the post of passport control officer in Berlin which was in fact a cover for his main duties as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) station. During the 1920s and 30s, Foley would be successful in recruiting agents and acquiring key details of German military research and development .

Foley is primarily remembered as a "British Schindler". In his role as passport control officer he helped thousands of Jews escape from Nazi Germany. At the 1961 trial of former ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann, he was described as a "Scarlet Pimpernel" for the way he risked his own life to save Jews threatened with death by the Nazis. Despite having no diplomatic immunity and being liable to arrest at any time, Foley would bend the rules when stamping passports and issuing visas, to allow Jews to escape "legally" to Britain or Palestine, which was then controlled by the British. Sometimes he went further, going into internment camps to get Jews out, hiding them in his home, and helping them get forged passports. One Jewish aid worker estimated that he saved "tens of thousands" of people from the Holocaust.

World War Two and after

At the outbreak of war Foley was recalled to London. In 1940, he was given the task of questioning Rudolf Hess, after Hess's flight to Scotland. After Hess was hospitalised in 1942, Foley helped co-ordinate MI5 and MI6 in running a network of double agents called the Double Cross System. He returned to Berlin after the war, where he was involved in hunting for ex-SS members.

In 1949 Foley retired to Stourbridge, a town in the Black Country, and died there in 1958; he is buried in Stourbridge Cemetery.

Posthumous recognition

In October 1999 he was accorded the status of a Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem. In 2004 a remembrance plaque was dedicated to him at the entrance to Stourbridge's Mary Stevens Park. [http://www.stourbridge.com/htm/frnfoley.htm] The following year volunteers from Highbridge, Foley's birthplace, raised money to erect their own tribute. A statue was commissioned from sculptor Jonathan Sells and unveiled on the anniversary of VE Day, which is also the anniversary of his death. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2005/05/05/frank_foley_statue_unveiled_feature.shtml Highbridge honours Frank Foley with statue] , BBC, 5 May 2005] Highbridge is also building a road in his memory named the 'Frank Foley Parkway'. A controversial movie about Frank Foley is currently in production and has attracted the attention of Cherie Booth Q.C, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and support against critics of the project that maintain it may pose a threat to National Security.

On 24 November 2004 (the 120th anniversary of his birth) descendants of Foley, relatives of those he saved, representatives of Jewish organisations, British MPs and other well-wishers gathered at the British Embassy for the unveiling of a plaque in honour of Foley.

The then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised Foley's heroism: 'Frank Foley risked his life to save the lives of thousands of German Jews. Without the protection of diplomatic immunity he visited internment camps and sheltered Jewish refugees in his house. Frank Foley was a true British hero. It is right that we should honour him at the British Embassy in Berlin, not far from where he once worked.'

References

Further reading

* Michael Smith. "Foley: The spy who saved 10,000 Jews". Hodder, 1999. ISBN 0-340-76603-4.
* Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News. "Kevin Spacey or Anthony Hopkins for Frank Foley Film?". [http://www.burnhamandhighbridgeweeklynews.co.uk/news/bhnewsburnham/display.var.953687.0.spacey_or_hopkins_for_foley_film.php]
* Daily Telegraph: Mrs Foley's diary solves the mystery of Hess By Michael Smith [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/27/whess27.xml&site=5&page=0]
* BBC: Inside Out: Foley The Quiet Briton [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/west/series7/frank_foley.shtml]
* A Big Little Man - Proving a Gentile was Righteous [http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/foley.html]
* Cherie Blair could help Foley Film [http://www.burnhamandhighbridgeweeklynews.co.uk/display.var.1150937.0.cherie_blair_could_help_foley_film.php]