To begin with, admired French army recruit from a distance (4)
I believe the answer is:
afar
'from a distance' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'to begin with admired french army recruit' is the wordplay.
'to begin with' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letters of 'admired french army recruit' is 'AFAR'.
(Other definitions for afar that I've seen before include "Remote" , "from baseline to baseline?" , "beyond the horizon" , "Many a mile" , "Many miles away" .)