George Herbert Farrar
Encyclopedia
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(17 June 1859 Chatteris
Chatteris
Chatteris is a civil parish and one of four market towns in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England, situated in The Fens between Huntingdon, March and Ely...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
– 20 May 1915 Kuibis, South West Africa
South West Africa
South-West Africa was the name that was used for the modern day Republic of Namibia during the earlier eras when the territory was controlled by the German Empire and later by South Africa....
, was a South African mining magnate, politician and soldier - Colonel and assistant Quartermaster General
Quartermaster general
A Quartermaster general is the staff officer in charge of supplies for a whole army.- The United Kingdom :In the United Kingdom, the Quartermaster-General to the Forces is one of the most senior generals in the British Army...
- Central Force, Union Defence Forces, Hon. Colonel South African Light Horse
Light Horse Regiment
The Light Horse Regiment , formerly the Imperial Light Horse , is a reserve unit of the South African Army. The regiment is an armoured car reconnaissance unit...
.
Son of Charles Farrar, a Chatteris medical doctor and Helen Howard, the daughter of John Howard of Cauldwell House Bedford and sister of Sir Frederick Howard of Bedford and James Howard
James Howard
James or Jim Howard may refer to:* James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk * James Howard , English dramatist* James Howard MP , British Liberal politician, manufacturer and agriculturalist...
MP of Bedford. George Herbert Farrar was educated at Bedford Modern School
Bedford Modern School
Bedford Modern School is a British co-educational independent school in the Harpur area of Bedford, in the county of Bedfordshire, in England.Bedford Modern comprises a junior school and a senior school...
after which he joined Howard, Farrar & Co., the engineering business of his uncle, Sir Frederick Howard, travelling to South Africa in 1879 to work at the firm's branches in Port Elizabeth and East London.
In 1887, shortly after the discovery of gold on the Reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
, he and his brothers established themselves in Johannesburg. Here he became one of the leading figures in the mining sector on the East Rand. His main creation was forming the East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM), remaining chairman of the company throughout his life. In 1893 Farrar sold 1,300 claims to the ERPM and received ERPM shares to the value of £705,000 for his claims in the south of Boksburg, excluding Boksburg Lake. Farrar later received further ERPM shares for his claims over Boksburg Lake, and became effectively the controlling shareholder of the ERPM. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Transvaal and Leader of the Opposition. For his part in the Jameson Raid
Jameson Raid
The Jameson Raid was a botched raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by a British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96...
he was sentenced to hang, but the sentence was commuted to a fine of £25,000, paid by cheque by Farrar's brother Sydney.
During the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
he raised two regiments of South African Horse, and on 1 December 1900 was appointed Major in the Kaffrarian Rifles
Kaffrarian Rifles
The Kaffrarian Rifles is an infantry regiment of the South African Army. As a reserve unit, it has a status roughly equivalent to that of a British Territorial Army or United States Army National Guard unit...
. He saw service in the Orange River Colony
Orange River Colony
The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after this nation first occupied and then annexed the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War...
, took part in the defence of Wepener
Wepener
Wepener is a village in the Free State, South Africa, located on the border with Lesotho. The town is named after Louw Wepener, the leader of the Boers in their war with the Basotho chief Moshoeshoe I in 1865. It was founded in 1867 on the banks of Jammersbergspruit, a tributary of the Caledon...
and saw action at Wittebergen, south of the Orange River
Orange River
The Orange River , Gariep River, Groote River or Senqu River is the longest river in South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean...
. He was mentioned in despatches and was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal
Queen's South Africa Medal
The Queen's South Africa Medal was awarded to military personnel who served in the Boer War in South Africa between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902. Units from the British Army, Royal Navy, colonial forces who took part , civilians employed in official capacity and war correspondents...
with 4 clasps, a DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
for his military service during the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
and was knighted in 1902. He became chairman of the Chamber of Mines. Farrar was an ardent supporter of the scheme to solve the labour problems of the mines by importing poorly paid Chinese workers on 3-year contracts. Despite strong opposition, the plan was implemented in 1904 and over 60,000 Chinese were brought into the country over a period of three years, resulting in even further ethnic tensions on the Reef. With the attaining of autonomy for the Transvaal in 1906, he represented Boksburg East in the Legislative Assembly and was leader of the Opposition. He represented Georgetown in the first parliament of Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
in 1910-11 and was created Baronet on 2 February 1911. In December 1911 he withdrew from politics and devoted all his time to his enterprises on the East Rand.
With the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he was visiting England and about to join the staff of General Sir Hubert Hamilton
Hubert Hamilton
Major General Hubert Ion Wetherall Hamilton CB, CVO, DSO was a senior British general who served with distinction throughout his career, seeing battle in the Mahdist War in Egypt and the Second Boer War in South Africa, before being given command of the British Third Division at the outbreak of...
in Belgium, but instead was ordered to German South West Africa as Assistant Q.M-General to Brigadier-General Duncan McKenzie's force with the rank of Colonel. From Lüderitz Bay
Angra Pequena
Angra Pequena was a small coastal area in what is now known as Lüderitz, Namibia.First discovered by Europeans in 1487 by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias. On April 10, 1883 Heinrich Vogelsang first landed at Angra Pequena...
he was in charge of the restoration of the railway and of supplying the forces with water, critically important in the semi-desert region. On 19 May 1915 while returning from a tour of inspection, his motor trolley collided with a construction train at Kuibis, near Gibeon
Gibeon (Namibia)
Gibeon is a village and a constituency in the Hardap Region region of Namibia. In the 2009 presidential election, 3669 people voted in the Gibeon constituency. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured.-Buildings and...
, and he succumbed to his injuries the following day. He was buried in Bedford Farm Cemetery east of Johannesburg - Bedford Farm was named for his boyhood hometown. Farrarmere, South Africa is also named after him.
He married Ella Mabel Waylen (c.1869–1922) on 3 June 1893 and had six daughters: Helen Mabel b. 1894; Muriel Frances, Viscountess Lowther b. 1896; Gwendoline b. 1897; Kathleen Elizabeth b. 1907; Ella Marguerite b. 1911.
Farrar was a champion athlete in his youth, a member of both Boodle's
Boodle's
Boodle's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1762, at 49-51 Pall Mall, London by Lord Shelburne the future Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the club came to be known after the name of its head waiter Edward Boodle....
and White's
White's
White's is a London gentlemen's club, established at 4 Chesterfield Street in 1693 by Italian immigrant Francesco Bianco . Originally it was established to sell hot chocolate, a rare and expensive commodity at the time...
, two gentlemen's clubs in London and the founder of the Johannesburg Turf Club.
He was the brother of John Percy Farrar
John Percy Farrar
Captain John Percy Farrar DSO , also known as Percy Farrar and as J. P. Farrar, was an English soldier and mountaineer. He was President of the Alpine Club from 1917 to 1919 and a member of the Mount Everest Committee.-Family:...
, soldier and mountaineer.
Sources
- Huddle Park history
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft. The Randlords - The Men Who Made South Africa (Jonathan Ball 1986) ISBN 0 8650 1352
- Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa (vol 4) (NASOU 1971) ISBN 0 625 00320 9
- John Pinfold. "Farrar, Sir George Herbert, baronet (1859–1915)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Oct 2007 accessed 23 Dec 2007