Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Joseph Foley was born in September 1884 in Ullina, Victoria and was raised by his mother, Mrs Bridget Foley and his father, Mr Foley. It is not known whether John Joseph Foley had any siblings although it is believed that he did not. At the age of 30, he lived by himself in the South Australian coastal town, Point Turton. John Joseph Foley worked as a labourer before he enlisted in the Australian Army. Being a labourer involved lots of manual and hands-on work which means that he was very physical when he was at work. He had had no previous military experience, so everything was new to him. Standing at 5 ft. 11 inches and weighing 74 kg, 30 ¾-year-old John Joseph Foley enlisted for the Australian and New Zealand army corps in Adelaide on the 17th of August 1915 and was accepted and given the service number 3490. At the time of his enlistment, John Joseph Foley lived alone, was not married, had no kids and was part of the Roman Catholic religion. 

After John Joseph Foley enlisted in the army, he was assigned to the 27th Infantry Battalion (8th reinforcements) and was given the rank of Private. He and his battalion went through heavy training involving learning how to shoot and hold weapons, marching drills and carrying heavy packs. On the 12th of January 1916, a little under 5 months after his enlistment, John Joseph Foley embarked from Adelaide on board the HMAT A30 Borda and headed towards Serapeum, Egypt where he and his Battalion would undergo even more training. On the 28th of February 1916, John Joseph Foley was transferred from the 27th Battalion reinforcements to the 10th Battalion.

Sometime in April or May 1916, the John Joseph Foley, along with the 10th battalion, were deployed on the western front. They were fighting for a couple of months. One month later, on the 23rd of July 1916, he took part in one of the biggest ANZAC battles, the battle of Pozieres. The fighting went on for many months and ended on the 3rd of September and the ANZACS suffered from 23,000 casualties. Sadly, John Joseph Foley was one of those casualties. On the 24th of July, the second day of fighting in Pozieres, he suffered from a burnt neck which was most likely from an explosion of some sort from a grenade or artillery fire. John Joseph Foley was admitted to hospital a couple of days later and only returned to his battalion on the 1st of September 1916.

Only 2 months after John Joseph Foley returned to his 10th battalion on the western front, he was wounded for the second occasion on the 8th of November. He took a gun-shot wound to his left thigh and there was heavy enemy artillery on the trench in the French city of Guedécourt. He was transported all the way to England to get the right treatment for his wounds and because he was going to be in the hospital for 6 months. He was discharged from the hospital on the 22nd of May 1917.

John Joseph Foley then went on to fight in many different locations and environments around France for close to a year. Then, on either the 20th or 21st of September 1917, he was fighting with ANZAC’s and the 10th Battalion at Polygon Wood. Whilst he was fighting there, John Joseph Foley got wounded badly - shot in the skull and fractured his arms. On the 27th of September, he was moved to the general military hospital in England where he received good treatment which saved his life. He was transported and reconnected with the 10th Battalion on the 12th of February 1918. The Battalion was involved in many attacks and small evacuations until the 23rd of August 1918, when John Joseph Foley got wounded in action for the fourth time. All that is known about it was that he was wounded in action at Provart by a gun-shot wound to his right thigh. He remained in hospital until after the war had finished. There is no information about what happened to John Joseph Foley after the war, so it is believed that he went back to normal life.

John Joseph Foley was awarded 3 medals for his service; The British War Medal, Victory Medal and the 1914/15 Star. All these qualities John Joseph Foley displayed to show that had had the ANZAC spirit.

John Joseph (Jack) Foley enlisted in the AIF at Adelaide on 17 August 1915. He embarked overseas on 12 January 1916 and, after arriving in Egypt, was transferred to the 10th Battalion on 28 February 1916. He arrived in France on 3 April 1916.

He was slightly wounded at Pozieres on 24 July 1916 and then more seriously wounded at Gueudecourt on 9 November 1916 – from which he didn’t return to the battalion until 26 August 1917. Less than a month later he was wounded for the third time during the Battle of Menin Road, near Ypres, on 20 September 1917.

Following another period in hospital in England, he returned to the battalion in France on 12 February 1918. In April 1918, he was involved in the 1st Division’s defence of Hazebrouck during the German Spring Offensive and then he participated in the allied offensive from Amiens in early August 1918.

On 23 August 1918, he was wounded for the fourth time during the attack on Chuignes and was again evacuated to England. On this occasion, he never returned to his unit and instead departed England for Australia on 1 August 1919.

He arrived back in Adelaide on 18 September 1919, where he was formally discharged from the AIF on 1 December 1919.

Source: Extract from "Clunes Soldiers Memorial Panel" by Robert Wight, June 2022.