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Captain Anthony Heritage Farrar-Hockley
Unit : "B" Company, 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion
Army No. : 251309
Awards : Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Distinguished Service Order and Bar, Military Cross, twice Mentioned in Despatches
Tony Farrar-Hockley was born in Coventry on the 8th April 1924. The son of a journalist, he was educated at Exeter School. He was 15 years old when the Second World War broke out, and lying about his age enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment, but was discharged when found out. In 1941, he re-enlisted and was posted to the 70th Young Soldier's Battalion. During the following year he volunteered to join the Parachute Regiment and began the selection process at Hardwick Hall on the 16th November 1942. Following this he completed parachute course No.39 at RAF Ringway, 27th November to 6th December 1942, and was subsequently granted an emergency commission and posted to the 6th Parachute Battalion.
Aged just 20, he was a Captain and Second-in-Command of "B" Company when, on the 15th August 1944, he parachuted into Southern France as part of Operation Dragoon. Farrar-Hockley recalled coming across a group of French peasants near a farmhouse: "I made them a speech in my best French telling them that the day of liberation had arrived and how splendid it was for them, etc. There was no answer and then one of the women nudged one of the men and said in French: "Tell him to shove off.""
His next action was in Greece, with the 6th Battalion clearing out small pockets of Germans around the Thebes area and carrying out vital relief for a population who had been deprived of food and bedding. He later said that getting food through to the starving people was one of the best things that he did. Before long fighting erupted with the Greek Communists in Athens and the 6th Battalion were very heavily involved. With the commander of "C" Company wounded, the young Farrar-Hockley took over; recalling years later, "I felt like a seasoned soldier. One morning we were mouse-holing through a chemist shop and as we went through I saw one or two rogues taking cards of scissors, etc. I stood in the middle of this attack, very vexed, and said to my sergeant: 'Get a hold of your soldiers and have all those goods handed back before we go on another step.' Which he rapidly did. The whole war seemed to stop for a moment as a reminder of the importance of discipline." For his actions in Greece, Farrar-Hockley was awarded the Military Cross and was Mentioned in Despatches.
After serving with the Battalion in Palestine, he remained in the Army but returned to the Gloucestershire Regiment, and in 1950 served as Adjutant with the 1st Battalion in Korea. Stocky and pugnacious, he was a man who provoked strong reactions amongst those he met. Some of the Gloster officers thought him "a brilliant chap", "a genuine man, intensely loyal, with the highest moral standards... a very good soldier indeed"; others felt he was "strong minded and determined, very full of his own opinions". Amongst the rank and file he was respected but feared for his unyielding standards, and almost inevitably there were some who called him "Horror-Fuckley" behind his back.
In April 1951, the 29th Infantry Brigade were ordered to hold a line along the Imjin river with the Glosters defending the main river crossing around Hill 235. On the 22nd April, the Chinese forces began the first of a series of heavy attacks against the Brigade which they bloodily repulsed. At midnight on the 24th April, a particularly prolonged and heavy attack was made against "A" Company, who were holding a long spur at the western end of the Battalion position, and by dawn the forward platoons had been forced back and both of the remaining platoon commanders had become casualties. The company was subsequently ordered to hold a knoll about 50 yards from Battalion Headquarters, and Farrar-Hockley, whose job as Adjutant was now somewhat redundant with the Battalion so closely concentrated, volunteered to assist their sole remaining officer in the defence of this critically important position. His impact was immediate as the survivors were reorganised into a strong defensive position, and despite repeated attacks held their ground. Throughout the engagement, Farrar-Hockley was based in one of the forward trenches and played a full part in the fierce, close-quarter fighting. He also moved from position to position, trying to keep everyone's spirits up; one man said "He kept us going. He was walking back and forward, saying 'we're not leaving, we're staying. We've nowhere left to go.'" During the night the men would hear the unnerving sound of Chinese buglers prior to an attack, so Farrar-Hockley sent for a bugle from the Drums Platoon and ordered Drum Major Buss to play Reveille and most every other call in the book except for retreat; this event, which has passed into regimental legend, cheered the Glosters and seemed to confuse the Chinese for a short while.
Eventually the Glosters were effectively surrounded and cut-off from the remainder of the 29th Brigade, and were finally ordered to withdraw; he later said, "It was a most peculiar order: 'Every man to make his own way back' It was an order I had not heard before, and hope never to hear again." He covered the withdrawal with fire and a smokescreen and was one of the last men to fall back. He then led one of the many small groups out of the position towards the rest of the Brigade, but they were spotted by the Chinese who fired warning shots at them, and with no other option Farrar-Hockley ordered his men to surrender. For his conduct during the Battle of Imjin River, Farrar-Hockley was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His citation reads:
During the final phase of the Battle of Imjin River, 1 Glosters, now much below strength, were concentrated on Hill 235. A Company, which on 22/23rd April 1951 had suffered many casualties, including three of the four officers with the Company, was holding a long spur running towards the West. The number of officers with the Company had been made up to three. At about midnight on 24/25th April 1951, an enemy attack developed against the A Company position. The enemy pressed this attack, in spite of heavy casualties, with the greatest determination; for the next ten and a half hours there was no respite for the tired and rapidly diminishing defenders. During the night, the only two platoon commanders became casualties, and by dawn on 25th April, the forward platoons had been driven in. The Company was then concentrated on a knoll about fifty yards from the Battalion Headquarters position. This knoll was the key to the whole position; and had it been captured by the enemy, the whole Battalion position would have become untenable.
It became clear that the one officer remaining with the Company would require assistance in the reorganisation of the position and in maintaining the defence of this vital point. Captain Farrar-Hockley, the Adjutant of 1 Glosters, volunteered for this dangerous task. His impact on the desperate situation of the Company was immediate: the trenches in which the defenders had become casualties were remanned and fire superiority was regained; enemy working round the left flank were caught by grenades and small arms fire and almost decimated. The defenders settled down with high morale to hold this position. Although checked in this manner, the enemy did not remain inactive for long: by now established on the next knoll about forty yards away, they attacked again and again, only to be killed or driven back. Throughout this time, Captain Farrar-Hockley was in one of the forward trenches encouraging his men and taking a very active part in the fierce fighting. This fighting took place at close quarters: the enemy made the best use of the cover and on one occasion three of them were killed within a few yards of Captain Farrar-Hockley's trench. Again, when an Air Strike was called in to relieve the pressure, the target given was the knoll only forty yards away from our own forward trenches. The position was finally abandoned only when ordered, at about 1020 hours. Captain Farrar-Hockley covered the withdrawal by fire and a smoke screen, and was himself one of the last to leave the position.
Throughout this desperate engagement, on which the ability of the Battalion to hold its position entirely depended, Captain Farrar-Hockley was an inspiration to the defenders; his outstanding gallantry, fighting spirit, and great powers of leadership, heartened his men and welded them into an indomitable team. His conduct could not have been surpassed.
Farrar-Hockley spent the next two years as a prisoner of war, during which time he made six attempts to escape and was subjected to brutal punishments when he was recaptured. On one occasion, he escaped with two other men and was sheltered in a monastery by an old woman, but he was discovered and both he and the woman were beaten; he insisted that he was alone and so the other two men evaded capture until the following day. Having lost his boots during the escape, his feet were in agony and became infected as a result of the long marching; he was held down and a Hussars doctor used a safety razor to operate on them, and for several days afterwards he had to be carried by the men. During another escape he managed to reach the Korean coast, and on another crawled and swam along a river bed for seven hours, surviving the intense cold by wrapping himself in a blanket taken from a dead mule, and feigning death when he was spotted by enemy soldiers. When he was recaptured, he was sometimes put in solitary confinement or forced to empty the latrines. On one occasion he had his foot slashed by a guard, but his worst treatment came at the hands of the North Korean police who interrogated him in a torture chamber which had ropes and metal rings fixed to the ceiling and blood stains on the walls. Bound to a chair which was kicked to the floor, he had a wet towel placed over his face to simulate drowning, and when he fell unconscious he was revived with cigarette burns. This continued for several days, but Farrar-Hockley managed to defy his interrogators by telling himself to resist for just one more day. Finally he was told he was going to be shot, and so he smoked a final cigarette before being led to his fate, only to be put aboard a jeep and returned to a POW camp.
In these camps, attempts would be made to re-educate the soldiers in Communist values; those who were compliant, known as "progressives", received more favourable treatment. The overwhelming majority resisted, and Farrah-Hockley was notorious for vigorously debating points with the lecturers, and often the sessions would descend into a shouting match. As a troublemaker he was denied access to mail, and later discovered that his wife had sent him 300 letters before he finally received the first. He also organised his own teaching programme; officers could attend pre-Staff College lectures, and when he returned home and attended Staff College himself, Farrar-Hockley became the first student to lecture the faculty.
Following the Armistice in July 1953, the British prisoners of war were released. On the voyage home, Farrar-Hockley learned of a plot to throw six of the "progressives" overboard, and so he had them put ashore in Singapore to complete their journey separately. Later he found that several others were earmarked for the same treatment and so had them taken into protective custody. For his conduct as a prisoner of war, Farrar-Hockley was Mentioned in Despatches, his citation reads:
During his captivity Captain A.H. Farrar-Hockley made six attempts to escape. In one of the earlier attempts, although recaptured himself, it was his planning and leadership which contributed largely to effecting the escape of two of his men. On another occasion, having been recaptured, he was subjected to various forms of privation and torture, including the Japanese water treatment, in an endeavour to extract information from him regarding the plans of two other officers, still at large, who had escaped with him. He resolutely refused to divulge the required information.
His indomitable resolution in continuing to attempt to escape, his stoic endurance of the punishment which these attempts brought on him, and his general resistance to the indoctrination tactics of the Chinese, were most praiseworthy. His behaviour was a credit to the British Army and an inspiration to his fellow prisoners.
After attending Staff College, Farrar-Hockley returned to the Parachute Regiment and served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General and later as Brigade Major of the 16th Parachute Brigade. In 1956, he saw active service with them in Cyprus, then Egypt during the Suez Crisis, and in 1958 during the British intervention in Jordan. For his actions during these years he was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire:
For two years, this officer has been Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General of 16th Independent Parachute Brigade Group. During this period the Brigade Group has served in Cyprus, Egypt and UK and taken part in several Internal Security operations, one airborne assault and many training exercises both in UK and elsewhere.
For much of this period the Brigade Group was based half in UK and half in Cyprus. At times it has been split between three countries. This continuous movement has necessarily imposed a very heavy strain on the administrative services of the Brigade, and especially on the Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General. He has risen magnificently to each occasion including movement of the Brigade twice at 48 hours notice, its accommodation in four different sets of barracks and camps, and administration during the Port Said operation.
During this period of two years he has had to work consistently long hours and nearly every week end. He has only been able to take two weeks' leave in all, and the present high standard of administration revealed in the current administrative inspections, in spite of the difficulties, is largely due to his unremitting efforts. Nothing has been too much trouble for him to obtain and nothing has been asked of him which he has not been able to provide. The welfare, comfort and consequently the morale of this formation have all been maintained and improved by these efforts.
He has achieved much more than he could ever have been ordered to do and his work should be recognised and rewarded.
He subsequently became chief instructor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, before taking command of 3 PARA in the Persian Gulf in 1961. Perhaps the greatest feat of arms of his career was his Battalion's capture of the Arab Nationalist stronghold at Wadi Dhubsan in 1964, deep in the Radfan mountains north of Aden. The Battalion was called upon to undertake a difficult 10-mile advance into mountainous enemy territory and then attack a highly inaccessible and strongly-defended rebel base. Helicopters were not available in sufficient numbers to permit an assault from the air, so his men roped themselves down the sheer sides of the flanking ridges and achieved complete surprise over the rebels in the gorge below. During a hard-fought battle, Farrar-Hockley's Scout helicopter was shot down beyond his own lines. With some difficulty, he rejoined his Battalion and, finding it pinned down, he launched a well-executed attack which drove the enemy from their position. This action led to the submission of the dissident Radfani tribes and to the award of a Bar to Farrar-Hockley's DSO. His citation reads:
During this period Lieutenant-Colonel Farrar-Hockley's battalion was called upon to perform an extremely difficult ten-mile advance into mountainous enemy territory, and then to attack and occupy an enemy base. This base was highly inaccessible and strongly defended. The whole operation was fraught with tactical and administrative difficulties of considerable proportions, and included two tough battles as well as several skirmishes. The performance of this battalion during this very testing period was superb, and was largely due to the inspiration and exceptional leadership of its Commanding Officer.
During the battle which developed in the enemy base, the helicopter in which Lieutenant-Colonel Farrar-Hockley was making a reconnaissance was brought down by enemy fire beyond our lines. Having with some difficulty rejoined his battalion, which by that time was pinned down, and although still under fire himself, he launched a brilliantly executed attack which finally drove the enemy from their position. This was only one example of the extraordinary energy, drive and resource with which this officer inspired his battalion during this period. Whether personally leading patrols in enemy country, or by his own example drawing forth exceptional efforts from his men, or improvising ingenious methods of supply, Lieutenant-Colonel Farrar-Hockley's leadership and bravery were of an order far beyond the call of duty.
The service rendered by this officer towards the furthering of these operations were outstanding during this very difficult period, and are worthy of the highest praise.
On leaving 3 PARA in 1965, Farrar-Hockley was posted to the Far East as Chief of Staff to the Director of Operations in Borneo, where he helped to organise secret operations inside Indonesian territory which brought about the end of President Sukarno's "Confrontation" with Malaysia. He took command of the 16th Parachute Brigade in 1966, and two years later went to Exeter College, Oxford, on a Defence Fellowship, carrying out research into the effects of National Service on British society. After conducting a poll of 2,000, he found that 84% said that they would welcome the return of conscription, but he admitted that there was a strong political bias against this idea, and in any case the Services did not want it.
Following a four month stint as Director of Army Public Relations, Farrar-Hockley was promoted to Major-General and posted to Belfast as Commander Land Forces. With rioting and terrorism on the increase, he was the first senior officer to acknowledge publicly that the IRA were behind the violence. Although he left Ulster well before "Bloody Sunday", his unremitting campaign against the IRA and his close association with the Parachute Regiment made him a prime target. In 1990, during his retirement, his gardener spotted that a bomb had been attached to his garden hose and it was successfully defused; Farrar-Hockley commented, "I keep my eyes open, and I don't much care for people who place explosive devices in my garden." In response to new evidence which emerged in successive enquiries into "Bloody Sunday", when 13 Catholics were shot dead during a civil rights march in Londonderry in 1972, Farrar-Hockley robustly defended the role of the Parachute Regiment, and told the BBC; "It is all part of a long-running public relations exercise, to persuade people that soldiers were all murderers and nothing wrong was done by the people on the other side", and he voiced strong concerns following the ruling by the judges sitting on the Saville Tribunal that the former Paras could not rely on being granted anonymity.
In 1971, Farrar-Hockley took over command of the 4th Armoured Division in Germany, before moving to the Ministry of Defence in 1974, where his innovative thinking and operational experience were given full scope as Director of Combat Development (Army). Promoted to Lieutenant-General on his appointment as General Officer Commanding South East District in 1977, he was knighted during the same year. In 1979, he went to Norway and took up his final military appointment in Oslo as NATO's Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe.
He retired from the Army in 1982, and acted as a defence consultant and spent much of his time writing. His publications throughout his life included The Edge of the Sword, an account of his Korean experience published in 1954; The Somme in 1964; and Goughie in 1975, a well-received biography of General Sir Hubert Gough, the commander of the ill-fated Fifth Army in 1918. He also joined the Cabinet Office's Historical Section to write the official history of the Korean War in two volumes; A Distant Obligation in 1990, and An Honourable Discharge in 1995. He wrote many articles in newspapers, periodicals and journals, and as a man of boundless energy, a lucid and forceful speaker, with an infectious enthusiasm for soldiering, he regularly appeared on television to comment on military events or terrorist incidents affecting the Army. He was also an outspoken opponent of the European Court of Human Rights ruling that the British Armed Forces were obliged to permit avowed homosexuals in its ranks; he maintained that the military was a unique institution which should be allowed to run its own affairs, and that the concession would damage morale and discipline.
Farrar-Hockley served as Aide-de-Camp General to the Queen from 1981 to 1983, was Colonel Commandant of the Prince of Wales Division from 1974-1980 and of the Parachute Regiment from 1977-1983, and was also Colonel of the Gloucestershire Regiment from 1978 to 1984. He was appointed a Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1981.
He married Margaret Bernadette Wells in 1945. Following her death in 1981, he married Linda Wood two years later, who survived him with two sons; another predeceased him. His eldest son from his first marriage was Major-General Dair Farrar-Hockley, who followed his father into the Parachute Regiment and was awarded the Military Cross during the Falklands War, where he commanded "A" Company, 2 PARA.
General Sir Anthony Heritage Farrar-Hockley passed away on Saturday 11th March 2006, aged 81.
NOTES: This biography was compiled from a variety of sources, including the obituary in The Telegraph, 14th March 2006, the book To The Last Round by Andrew Salmon, and the Archives of the Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford.
Thanks to Bob Hilton for this account.