Farrar-Hockley, Anthony Heritage 1924-2006

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 8, 1924, in Coventry, Warwickshire, England; died March 11, 2006. Military officer and author. A war hero who saw action in Europe, Korea, and theMiddle East and eventually achieved the rank of major general in the British Army, Farrar-Hockley was also a highly respected military historian and biographer. Educated at the Exeter School, he enlisted in 1939 in the Gloucestershire Regiment and, as part of the 1st Airborne Division during the height of World War II, saw action in Italy, France, and Greece, earning the Military Cross in 1944. After the war, he served in Palestine before being sent to Korea for the conflict there. While with the Parachute Regiment of the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, he was adjutant during the famous and crushing battle for Hill 235 that the British forces lost against overwhelming Chinese forces. Farrar-Hockley was made a prisoner. Making six escape attempts, none of them a success, he remained a POW for two years. Released in 1953, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His experiences in Korea became the subject of his first book, The Edge of the Sword(1954). Back in the Middle East, Farrar-Hockley next fought the terrorist uprising in Cyprus in 1956 and was involved in the British invasion of Jordan in 1958. Appointed a Member of the British Empire in 1958, he found himself at a desk job as an instructor at England's Royal Military Academy from 1959 to 1961. Such work was not entirely to his liking, though, and he found a command of a parachute battalion in the Persian Gulf from 1962 to 1965, became director of Borneo Operations from 1965 to 1966, and was commander of the 16th Parachute Brigade from 1966 to 1968. Awarded a fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1968 to 1970, he received a B.Litt. and then was appointed director of army public relations in 1970. In this post, Farrar-Hockley forthrightly pointed out that the crisis inNorthern Ireland was one of terrorist acts against the United Kingdom, a statement British politicians were loathe to admit. His job as commander of land forces in Northern Ireland from 1970 to 1971 would make him a target of the Irish Republican Army, which even as late as 1990 made an unsuccessful attempt on his life. Later appointments included Colonel-Commandant of the Prince of Wales's Division from 1974 to 1980, and of the Parachute Regiment from 1977 to 1983, Colonel of the Gloucestershire Regiment from 1978 to 1984, and ADC General to the Queen from 1981 to 1983. Farrar-Hockley eventually earned four stars on his shoulder. He was also an accomplished war historian, especially noted for his expertise on World War I and for his biography Goughie: The Life of General Sir Hubert Gough (1975). Among his other titles areTrue Book about the Second World War (1959), The War in the Desert (1969), Opening Rounds: Lessons of Military 142History, 1918-1988 (1988), and The Army in the Air: The History of the Army Air Corps (1994).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), March 14, 2006, p. 62.