IT IS often remarked, particularly when people unexpectedly encounter a familiar face in a faraway place, that the world we live in is indeed a small one.

This truism was perfectly demonstrated by the experiences of Adolphe Rapp, of Bernard Street, Southampton, a photographer and a familiar figure at The Dell, who was often seen with his camera chronicling the fortunes of the Saints each week.

Mr Rapp, who was a French citizen, was one of the first Frenchmen living in England to respond to his country’s call to fight under the tricolour, and for 19 days took part in the fighting in northern France, escaping unscathed.

Interpreter After this, he was attached to the British Army for his linguistic ability operating in Flanders as an interpreter.

It was here in the course of a prolonged battle for a road to Calais that he was left badly wounded on the field – being shot through the leg by a rifle bullet, and having his arm torn by shrapnel.

For 29 hours he was left unattended on the battlefield, until he was discovered by a British Royal Army Medical Corps man who was surprised to find that the wounded Frenchman spoke uncommonly good English.

And he was even more surprised when Rapp added that he was in business in Southampton.

By a curious coincidence the rescuer was another Southampton man, Donald Eliott, who, as he placed the injured man on the ambulance train to the base hospital, pledged to inform his friends of his predicament, a promise that was promptly fulfilled.

Later that week Mrs Rapp received reassuring news from her husband on one of the regulation postcards issued to the Army.

Reputation The postcard, which was to the point and absent of any superfluous phrases, bore a Calais postmark and simply read: “I have been admitted into hospital and am going on well.

“I have received your letter. Letter follows at the earliest opportunity.”

In the years before the outbreak of the First World War, Adolphe Rapp forged quite a reputation as a notable photographer in Southampton, with his numerous, yet rare, photographs treasured by collectors to the present day.

Arriving in Southampton in October 1902 from Port Elizabeth in South Africa, it wasn’t long before Rapp settled in the town and set up his photography business, which saw him become a familiar presence along the touchline of The Dell where he snapped hundreds of photographs of footballers and crowd scenes between the years of 1905 and 1914.

In 1910 Rapp tied the knot with his Southampton-born sweetheart Rose Howell, with the fruitful marriage bearing two sons named Victor and Leon.

Two years later Adolphe made a trip to Argentina alone but returned to Southampton prior to being sent to France with the war.

Despite being injured, Adolphe Rapp survived the war and returned to Southampton for a number of years before he and his family moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1920.