Submitted by his niece, Carol Miller and nephew, Michael Smith.
Stephen Foley was the eldest of the four sons of Andrew Denis Foley and Eva Foley of 75 Mount Street Coogee Sydney. He also had six sisters. Three of his uncles, his father’s brothers, had attended Riverview College on Sydney’s Lane Cove River in the early twentieth century.
Stephen was born while his parents were in London only ten weeks after the first ANZACs landed at Gallipoli. When Stephen entered Riverview on 15 February 1926 in Rudiments Class, he had come from primary school in Ballina on the north coast of NSW and he immediately established himself as an active, energetic and thoroughly agreeable young man. He charmed everyone with what Father Don Roset SJ, writing his obituary in 1943, described as his “ready wit and repartee, cheerful disposition and continual smile”. Roset was Stephen’s Second Division Prefect in 1930.
Stephen represented the College at the highest levels in sports. He was a 440 yards runner who competed at the AAGPS Athletics Championships in 1933, and he played five-eighths in the 1st XV of 1933 as a fast and elusive runner. His presence in the 1st X1 was a steadying influence in Riverview’s Premiership side of 1933. Chasing 181 against Grammar, Riverview was 9 for 179 when Tom Magney joined Stephen at the wicket. Both batsmen showed exemplary maturity to guide Riverview to victory. Stephen also kept wickets in this side and was sage and reliable behind the stumps.
Going up to Sydney University in 1934 to study Medicine seemed a natural course for this urbane young man who was conscientious about his studies.
He played for the Sydney University Cricket Club for four seasons (1934-1938), hovering between 2nd and 3rd Grades but never quite scoring enough runs to establish himself in the higher Grades. His demanding medical studies took priority although he did regularly turn out for the Old Boys’ X1 against the College 1st X1 on “Back to Riverview” days.
Residency at St Vincent’s Hospital followed his graduation in 1940, then he spent a year in Queensland training with the AAMC. During these years he met Kathleen Lyndsay Cameron, who was the daughter of Dr and
Mrs Cameron of Mudgee, and who was with the AIF nursing service. The couple were married in April 1943 at the Sacred Heart Church, Randwick.
On 12th May 2/12th Field Ambulance boarded 2/3 AHS Centaur bound for tropical training in Cairns prior to proceeding to Lae to set up a field hospital. Stephen Foley, aged 27, died with the majority of his unit when the Centaur, clearly marked as a hospital ship, was torpedoed off Morton Island.
The Prime Minister, John Curtin, described the sinking as ‘deliberate, wanton and barbarous’. The Japanese Commander of the I-177 submarine, Hajime Nakagawa, never faced trial for the deaths and never spoke about his motivation up to his death in 1986. In the two weeks following the surrender on 15 August 1945, the Japanese Government destroyed many records that could have helped any prosecution of Pacific War atrocities. This tragedy was compounded when so many young medical graduates were lost to Australian life.
Two years after Captain Foley’s death, his widow remarried at St Mary’s, Mudgee. She married Lieutenant Ronald Stanley Belford who had also been at Riverview (1927-1930), and whose brother Allan Belford was Dux of Riverview in 1929. Lieutenant Allan Belford also lost his life in the Second World War, dying of sickness in Goulburn during January 1945.