Arthur Richard Foley, always know as ‘Dick’ Foley, was born in Hyde, Cheshire, England, on the 22nd January 1865, the third son of Joseph and Ruth Foley (née Wainwright). His father was a house painter, and the family lived at 9. Canal Street, Hyde.
His first employment was as an apprentice to Messrs. Daniel Adamson’s of Dukinfield, and he was a regular worshipper at St. Thomas’ Church, Hyde, where he was not only a member of the choir, but also of the church’s Minstrel Troupe, where his tenor voice was much admired. It was whilst still in Hyde that he met Miss Thirza Ann Pickard, who was a member of a well-known local family.
In 1887, probably in search of prosperity, Dick Foley emigrated to the United States of America and settled in Trenton, New Jersey. According to
The Hyde Reporter of 15th May 1915: -
When he arrived in the States, his wonderful personality and amiable disposition soon won him many friends.
It did not take him long to gain employment, either, for fairly soon, he had secured the important position of commercial traveller for The Home and Thermoid Rubber Company of Trenton. This position meant his travelling all over America, and making frequent visits to Europe. In 1894, he sought and was granted United States citizenship.
Thirza Ann Pickard followed him to Trenton, and on the 10th June 1889 they were married. They would have three children, Joseph Bertram born in 1893, Elizabeth Louisa, born in 1890, and who became a qualified teacher, and Ruth Wainwright, born in 1900. The family home in Trenton was at 713, Hamilton Avenue, where he was a vestryman of Christ Episcopal Church in Trenton, and following his earlier Cheshire example, a tenor member of the choir. He was also an active Freemason, being a member of The Fraternal Lodge No. 139 and a member of The Sons of St. George Society.
Following successful business trips to Europe in 1913 and 1914, on 1st May 1915, he set out as a second cabin passenger from New York, on the
Lusitania for what he hoped would be a three month stay in England. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as he was one of those killed when the liner was sunk, off the coast of Ireland, six days out of New York by the German submarine
U-20. At that stage of her voyage, the liner was only hours away from her Liverpool home port.
His body was recovered from the sea, however, and landed at Queenstown, where, before it was positively identified, it was given the reference number 36 in one of the temporary mortuaries there, which indicates it must have been one of the earliest to be recovered. He was aged 50 years.
When the news of his death reached his family in Cheshire, his brother Bert, who was a mechanical engineer in Preston, Lancashire, and his brother-in-law, Walter Carter, a solicitor, also of Preston, who lived at 43, Burrow Road, went to Liverpool to seek further news. Walter Carter then travelled to Queenstown, where he was able to identify Dick Foley’s corpse and take possession of all the belongings recovered from it.
By this time, his family in Trenton had also learned of his death and decided to have him buried there. As a consequence, his body was embalmed and on the authority of the American Consul, was despatched on 14th May 1915, on the S.S.
New York, to The Home and Thermoid Rubber Company, in Trenton. On 26th May 1915, a funeral service was held for him at Christ Episcopal Church after which interment took place at Riverview Cemetery.
Coincidentally, crew member Ordinary Seaman Victor McLeod was also a worshipper at St. Thomas’ Church, Hyde, many years after Dick Foley, before moving to Wallasey, on the banks of the River Mersey and becoming a seaman. He too, perished in the sinking.
On 21st February 1924, the Mixed Claims Commission awarded Thirza Foley the sum of $25,000.00 compensation for the loss of her husband, and $5,000.00 to Ruth, who was a student at Trenton High School at the time of her father’s death, and therefore wholly dependant on him. No award was made in respect of the other two children as they had been in employment, and financially self-sufficient at the time of their father’s death
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Massachusetts Town and Vital Records 1620 – 1988, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 63, Hyde at War, Hyde Reporter, New York Times, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/273, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.