Mark Foy

1865 - 1950

BiographyMark Foy was a businessman and sportsman, born in 1865 at Bendigo, Victoria. In 1885 Foy, with older brother Francis, set up Mark Foy's retail outlet in Oxford Street, Sydney. In 1890 he founded the Sydney Flying Squadron.

Mark Foy pioneered coloured designs as distinguishing signs on mainsails, triangular course racing, and handicaps at the start of the race. When boats which carried coloured designs on their mainsails were banned from the Anniversary Day Regatta, he started a rival event.

In 1898 he raced his 22-footer IREX on the Medway in England, but lost all three races to the MAID OF KENT. On 19 September at St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart, Tasmania, he married Elizabeth Dominica Tweedie. In July 1904 Mark Foy opened the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath, New South Wales, as a hydropathic resort.

His other sporting activities and interests included rifle shooting, motor racing, and boxing. Mark Foy retired from the retail business in 1908. He died in 1950 and was survived by two daughters and two sons. He is buried in the Catholic section of South Head cemetery, New South Wales.

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