Lieutenant-Colonel F H Farebrother

The Collection (95 ITEMS) mostly consists of official and demi-official reports and letters relating to his service with the 128th Pioneers Indian Army 1905-22, and with the 2/13th Frontier Force Rifles 1922-34. This includes a 21pp ts memoir of his service in India 1905-14, various papers relating to his secondment to the Royal Military College of Australia 1925-27, and reports on his ability and the good work of his unit during the North West Frontier operations 1930-31 and afterwards. Also 2 letters from his son Lieutenant H Farebrother 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards (6th Armoured Division) in North Africa and Italy 1944, with some letters of condolence on his death in action in 1944. There is also a series of 41 items relating to the Civil Defence movement in Suffolk and Hertfordshire 1951-61, which concentrate on training, exercises, and organisation.

Unrestricted

Francis Hughes Farebrother was born in 1886, and after passing through Sandhurst was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Indian Army in August 1905. After a year on attachment to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment he joined the 128th Pioneers in December 1906. He became a Lieutenant in 1907 and a Captain in August 1914. During the First World War he served with his regiment as Adjutant in Egypt November 1914 to December 1915, and in Mesopotamia December 1915 to March 1916 when he went on sick leave. Rejoining the Regiment in Mesopotamia in May 1917, he became a Staff Captain of the 19th Brigade (7th Indian Division), and as such went to Egypt with the Brigade in January 1918. He became a Brigade Major of the 28th Brigade from September 1918, and was of the 10th Indian Division May 1919 to August 1920, when he returned to Regimental duty as a Major. He was three times Mentioned in Despatches for his services during the war. Indian Staff College Quetta 1920-21.

Brigade Major, Allahabad Brigade Area, February 1922 to August 1925; in August 1922 he transferred to the 2nd Battalion 13th Frontier Force Rifles. Director of Military Art at the Royal Military College of Australia and Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, October 1925 to November 1927. Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the 2/13th FF Rifles April 1930. Served on the North-West Frontier October 1930 to March 1931 (Afridi and Redshirt Rebellions) for which he was again Mentioned in Despatches. Retired April 1934.

He served with the Glamorgan and Monmouth Home Guard in the Second World War, and was later involved with the Civil Defence movement in Suffolk and Hertfordshire. He died in 1980.

His son, M. Harcourt Farebrother, was born in India in 1923 and educated at Winchester. He was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards (6th Armoured Division), becoming a Lieutenant in December 1940, and after serving in North Africa and Italy died of wounds received in an action near Perugia on 19 June 1944.