Franklin-Bouillon was born in Jersey. He began as a member of the Radical-Socialist Party, but belonged to its furthest right-wing: he advocated that the Radical-Socialists join with Poincaré's alliance of centre-right and right-wing parties to oppose communism and socialism and support punitive military policy towards Germany. In 1927 these stances prompted him to lead two-dozen like-minded deputies to quit the Radical-Socialist Party, forming a mid-sized centre-right parliamentary party of Independent Radicals, named the Social and Radical Left group.