Fay, Samuel Prescott

Samuel Prescott Fay was born on May 27, 1884, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Joseph S. and Rebecca R. Fay (née Motley).  Fay attended St. Mark’s School in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Harvard University.  Fay was employed as a stock broker both before and after World War I.

In 1915 Fay decided to volunteer for the Allied war effort abroad, and departed New York aboard the Espange on May 8, the day after the sinking of the Lusitania  (the ship on which he had originally booked his trans-Atlantic passage), arriving in Bordeaux, France, on May 17.  Fay arrived in Paris the following day and volunteered his services at the American Ambulance Hospital, an American-run military hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, on May 24, 1915.  The following night he began transporting wounded from La Chapelle, the freight area of the Gare du Nord train station, to hospitals throughout Paris and convalescent homes outside the city.

On July 6, 1915, Fay travelled to Dunkirk to join Section Sanitaire [États-] Unis (SSU) 1 of the American Ambulance Field Service (later to be known as the American Field Service or AFS), which was attached to the 45^th Division of the French Army.  Fay moved to Coxyde, Belgium, near Nieuport, on July 12 before returning to Dunkirk on July 15 on his way to Crombec.  The entire unit was transferred to Crombec on July 20.  While stationed at Crombec, Fay retrieved wounded from a number of poste de secours, including those in Poperinghe, Woesten, Rousbrugge, and Elverdinghe.

Subsequent to his AFS service, Fay joined the U.S. Aviation units which were part of the American Expeditionary Forces, serving as Captain in the 91^st Observation Squadron from September 26, 1918 until the Armistice in November of that same year.

After the AFS ambulance service was reactivated during World War II, Fay served as an AFS Representative for the organization.  AFS had 106 regional representatives in the United States who were often veteran drivers from the First World War (such as Fay), and who assisted in fundraising and recruiting ambulance drivers for service abroad.  Fay was also awarded the United Kingdom King’s Medal for Services in the Cause of Freedom.

Samuel P. Fay passed away on August 11, 1971.

[Bio courtesy of AFS Archives, New York]