Retrospective Exhibition

Saturday 15^{th &} Sunday 16^th November
at the Royal Burnham Yacht Club
the work of

Lieutenant Michael Foley RN

Artist and Sculptor. 1912-1943.

Michael Foley painted the murals in the Red Bar (the Snakepit) in 1934 at the age of 22. He sailed a Royal Burnham One Design with his sister Colleen, the first owner of Whimbrel RB9, apparently with some success. His sisters also bought two of the other RBOD’s when they were first launched in 1932. Geraldine Foley (Mrs Russell Brooke) bought Simonetta RB16, and Nano Foley (Mrs Essaye) Ariel RB20.

After he left the Central School of Art, Michael Foley became a successful sculptor and painter. His sculptures are still to be found at St Aldate’s Chapel, Oxford University and St Anne’s Priory in Liverpool. He was also commissioned to do a sculpture and murals for pavilions at both the 1937 International Trade Fair in Paris and the 1939 Trade Fair in New York, as well as at Whipsnade Zoo.

He joined the Navy in WWII and whilst serving on HMS Clacton, a Bangor Class minesweeper, he was sadly lost in action near Corsica on the 31^st December 1943 aged 31, during the preparations for the Salerno landings in Italy.

The Foley family is lending a selection of his sculptures, paintings, self-portraits, and drawings, many of which have a marine connection, for an exhibition over the weekend of 15^th & 16^th November.

The exhibition will be open for the whole of Saturday and Sunday. At 6pm on Saturday, there will be a talk and an appreciation of Michael Foley's art by Nicholas Usherwood, a well known art critic and editor of Galleries magazine.

The club will celebrate the exhibition with a dinner on the Saturday night at 7.30 for 8pm where his widow Monica also hopes to be present.

Geoffrey Taunton-Collins (nephew of Michael Foley and son of Colleen Foley).