I am told that the famous Foreign Legion is one hundred years old this month. It was inaugurated in March, 1831, principally to utilise the services of the numerous refugees who went to France following the reaction throughout Europe of the Revolution of 1830. Recruits were enrolled for foreign service only, and in August, 1831, seven battalions of eight companies apiece left France for Algeria, which has been the headquarters of the Legion ever since.
The romance of this service has been the theme of historians, novelists and poets. Princes and ex-convicts have served in it shoulder to shoulder. Men who loved adventure or had a criminal past to hide or who were "lost to love and honour and done with hope and truth", joined the Legion on account of the attractions which it offered in all their cases.
Physical fitness was - and is - the only qualification, and no embarrassing questions are asked. For the most part, the Legionnaire has nothing to lose but life. On his flag is inscribed the word "Valour" in place of "Country"; for the Foreign Legion recruits its soldiers from all corners of the world. Once in a while a Legionnaire may die in the desert, whereupon a warship will come to that coast and fetch his remains to his native country. Such was the case in November, 1897, when a German cruiser fetched home the body of Albrecht Frederic, cousin of Prince Henry of Prussia and of the Kaiser.
The Irish Times, March 14th, 1931