Anthony Farrar-Hockley - Military Career

Military Career

At the outbreak of war in 1939, at the age of 15, Tony Farrar-Hockley ran away from school and enlisted in the ranks with the Gloucestershire Regiment. After the discovery of his age he was discharged. In 1941 he enlisted again and was posted to a Young Soldiers' Battalion. In 1942 he was commissioned and posted to the new 1st Airborne Division seeing action with the Parachute Regiment in Italy, France and Greece. He was still only 20 in 1944 when he was given command of a company in the 6th Battalion Parachute Regiment and later won an MC in Greece whilst resisting the communist rebellion in Athens.

After post-war service with the Glosters in Palestine, Farrar-Hockley fought in the Korean War, still with the Glosters as adjutant. He provided inspiring leadership during the Battle of the Imjin River and fight for Hill 235. "A" Company had undergone lengthy attack, taken severe officer casualties and was struggling. Farrar-Hockley volunteered to reinforce the company and his presence had an immediate effect. The company were able to retrench and hold on for some time. Nevertheless they became surrounded, ran out of ammunition, and after hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets were ordered to withdraw. Farrar-Hockley organised an orderly withdrawal but as one of the last to leave the position he was captured. The Glosters became known as the Glorious Glosters and he was awarded the DSO although he was a captain and the DSO was usually reserved for more senior ranks. His citation stated:

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 two years as a prisoner of war. He was mentioned in Dispatches for his conduct. After active service in the Cyprus Emergency (1956), Egypt (1956) and Jordan (1958), he spent some time at RMA Sandhurst as chief instructor (1959–1961)

In 1962 he took command of 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment in the Persian Gulf. While there possibly the greatest feat of arms of his career took place in 1964 during the Aden Emergency when his battalion captured a stronghold held by nationalist and tribesmen in the Radfan mountains of north of Aden at Wadi Dhubsan. For this action Farrar-Hockley was awarded a bar to his DSO.

1n 1965 Farrar-Hockley was posted as Chief of Staff to the Director of Operations in Borneo in the Far East. Indonesia under President Sukarno was confronting the new Federation of Malaysia. Secret and unattributable cross-border operations which Farrar-Hockley helped to organise on Indonesian territory helped bring the ill-judged military confrontation to an end.

After commanding (1966–1968) the 16th Parachute Brigade and his fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford (1968–1970) he was promoted to major general and appointed as the first Commander Land Forces in Belfast where he was the first senior officer to acknowledge publicly that the IRA was behind the violence. After this he commanded the 4th Division in BAOR (1971–1973) before returning to the MoD where he was put in charge of Combat Development for the Army.

After a period commanding the Army's GOC South East District (1977–1979) he was appointed commander in chief of Nato's Allied Forces Northern Europe. He held this appointment until his retirement from the army in 1982.