SECOND LIEUTENANT HERBERT RONALD FARRAR
LEICESTERSHIRE REGIMENT ATTACHED MANCHESTER REGMENT
24TH DECEMBER 1914 AGE 27
BURIED: DRANOUTRE MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Herbert Farrar was killed in the trenches at Wulverghem on Christmas Eve 1914, the event recorded in Major Swindell's pocket diary - Major was not his rank but his Christian name.
"Dec 24th 1914 D. Station. We hoped there would be no casualties during the holidays. But our hopes were soon dashed to the ground. 1 lieut (Mr Yarrow) killed, 1 sergt & 1 pte wounded, both died afterwards. It made one think the Germans had singled out 1 officer, 1 sergt & 1 pte."
The officer killed was Mr Farrar not Mr Yarrow. The next day, Christmas Day, Major Swindell recorded how "Our chaps went and met the Germans half way between the trenches & exchanged cigarettes, cigars etc ..."
Herbert Farrar was the son of the Revd HW Farrar of Barcombe Rectory, Lewes, Sussex. Educated at Dulwich College and Queens' College, Cambridge, he had been a prep school master before he joined up. His inscription sounds as though it could be quotation from a letter of condolence, which it might be, but it is also a quotation from the Book of Daniel, 10:11 "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved".