Major Roy Farran, who died on Friday night aged 85, was one of the most highly decorated

soldiers of the Second World War; he was awarded the DSO, three MCs, the Croix de Guerre and the American Legion of Merit. But like some other gallant soldiers, Farran did not take easily to the peace he had never expected to see, and in the years that followed he pursued a wide variety of callings. For a time he worked with the security police in Palestine, where he was accused of murder. When the charges were dropped, he came home to Britain, where his brother was killed by a letter bomb. Farran was head of a construction company in Rhodesia before coming home to stand unsuccessfully in the 1950 general election. He farmed in Herefordshire before emigrating to Canada. He also wrote a classic account of the desert war and the early years of the Special Air Service. The son of an Irish warrant officer in the RAF, Roy Alexander Farran was born on January 2 1921 in India, and attended Bishop Cotton School at Simla. After Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards (3DGs) and sent to the 51st Training Regiment. Posted on attachment to the 3rd King's Own Hussars in Egypt, he was soon in action at the battle of Sidi Barrani. On May 20 1941, when the Germans invaded Crete, "C" Squadron of the 3rd King's Own Hussars was in its leaguer four miles west of Canea, and 2nd Lieutenant Farran was sent to block the road from Galatos with his troop of tanks. When he saw a party of Germans escorting a group of about 40 hospital patients who had been taken prisoner, he killed the guards. The next day he supported 10th Infantry Brigade in a successful attack on Cemetery Hill. After the Germans broke through the line at Galatos, Farran counter-attacked to retake the village, but was wounded in both legs and an arm, and taken prisoner. He was awarded his first MC. After being flown to a PoW hospital in Athens he made several attempts to escape, eventually managing to crawl under the perimeter wire. Greek peasants passed him from house to house at great personal risk and enabled him to evade his pursuers. The Greeks lent him money to hire a caique, in which he set course for Egypt with a mixed group of British, Australians and others. The vessel encountered severe storms, and was blown off its course for 48 hours; and when it ran out of fuel Farran rigged up a sail made out of blankets. One of the men went off his head after the supply of water was exhausted and Farran, the senior officer on board, had to knock him out before he endangered the whole party. The escapers were too weak to paddle, but their lives were saved by a Sergeant Wright, who made a primitive distiller which provided drinking water from the sea. After nine days Farran and his comrades, almost dead from thirst, were rescued by a destroyer 40 miles north of Alexandria; he was awarded a Bar to his MC. In January 1942 Farran was appointed ADC to General Jock Campbell, VC, commander of the 7th Armoured Division in North Africa. Farran was driving the general when the car skidded and overturned; Campbell was killed. Six months later Farran was wounded and evacuated to England, where he was posted to three different units before he was able to join a draft for North Africa in February 1943. After an interview with Lt-Col Bill Stirling and a rigorous parachuting course, in May Farran joined 2nd SAS Regiment as second-in-command of a newly-raised squadron. Despite suffering from malaria, he insisted on leading a raid to capture a lighthouse

which was suspected of housing machine-gun units at Cape Passero, on the south-east coast of Sicily. In September Farran commanded "B" Squadron on reconnaissance patrols and sabotage operations in southern Italy. On the night of October 27 he led a detachment of 2 SAS which was dropped north of the River Tronto behind the German lines. Over the next five days his small force blew up the railway line, cut telephone communications and destroyed enemy transport. He was awarded a second Bar to his MC. Farran returned to England early in 1944 and, on August 19, was landed by Dakota on an airstrip at Rennes, Brittany, to command a Jeep squadron based in the Forest of Chtillon, north of Dijon. Over the course of the next four weeks his small force destroyed 23 staff cars, six motorcycles, 36 trucks and troop carriers, a goods train and a supply dump holding 100,000 gallons of petrol. At Beaulieu, the Germans were panicked into blowing up their wireless station and evacuating the garrison. While about 500 enemy were killed or wounded, seven members of the squadron were killed, two were wounded, one was missing and two taken prisoner. Farran was awarded a DSO in the name of Patrick McGinty, a pseudonym he had used since escaping from the Germans in 1941; he claimed that the name came from a song about an Irish goat which swallowed a stick of dynamite. Following a reconnaissance trip to Greece, Farran led 3 Squadron, 2 SAS, in Operation Tombola to harass German troops withdrawing from Italy. Although forbidden to take personal command, he was not prepared to direct the operation from a wireless set in Florence; and, having persuaded the US aircrew to say that he had accidentally fallen out of the aircraft while they were dispatching the advance party, he was dropped on Mount Cusna, east of La Spzia. As soon as reinforcements arrived from the SAS, Farran raised a force composed of British commandos, Italian partisans and escaped Russian prisoners which became known as the Battaglione Alleato. At the end of March he led a night attack on the German 51st Corps HQ at Albinea, near Rggio Nell'Emilia, again in contravention of orders. Although the enemy put up a spirited defence, a German general and his chief of staff were among the casualties. Subsequently Farran led a series of raids against Highway 12, south of Modena. After the victory parade at the end of the campaign, he expected to be court-martialled; but his operations had been of great assistance to US IV Corps, and those pressing for his court martial had to give up when the Americans said that they were awarding him the Legion of Merit. When the war ended, Farran went to Norway with 2 SAS to help with rounding up the Germans there. In 1946 he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Becoming second-in-command of the 3rd Hussars, he accompanied them to Palestine. One day he was lunching in the officers' mess at Sarafand when terrorists attacked a nearby ammunition dump. Farran and his comrades pursued them, wounding two. After a spell as an instructor at Sandhurst he returned to Palestine to put his knowledge of clandestine intelligence-gathering at the disposal of the Palestine Police. He formed "Q" Patrols, made up of hand-picked undercover police officers whose job it was to infiltrate the terrorists' network. There were claims that a hat bearing Farran's name had been found at the spot where a 16-year-old Jewish youth, Alexander Rubowitz, had been abducted; and there were also reports that the youth had been killed. After allegations had appeared in the Palestine Post, Farran was put under house arrest.

Farran claimed to have a water-tight alibi, but believed that he would be sacrificed by the British authorities in order to demonstrate impartiality in dealing with the Jews and Arabs. When he heard that he was to be charged with murder, he stole a car and, accompanied by two of his NCOs, crossed the border into Syria and told his story to the head of the British Legation in Damascus. Farran flew back to Palestine with the Assistant Inspector-General of the Palestine Police and was incarcerated in Allenby Barracks, Jerusalem. He escaped again, but surrendered after members of the Stern gang started to take reprisals against his friends. At his trial it was maintained that no body had been discovered and that Farran had not been identified in a line-up by those who claimed to have seen the boy taken away in a car. The case was dismissed because of lack of evidence. But when he was in Scotland shortly before the first anniversary of the boy's disappearance, Farran's youngest brother, Rex, was killed by a letter bomb sent to the family home near Wolverhampton; Farran suspected the Stern gang. After a brief spell as a quarrymaster in Scotland, he moved to Kenya and then Rhodesia to head a construction company. He then flew home again to stand as a Conservative for Dudley and Stourbridge in the 1950 general election, but lost by some 13,000 votes to the future Labour paymaster-general George Wigg. Farran subsequently emigrated to Alberta, where he made his home for the rest of his life, though he was to offer his services to the War Office during the Suez crisis. He took up dairy farming at Calgary, worked as a reporter and columnist for the Calgary Herald and, in 1954, founded the North Hill News, which became the country's leading weekly newspaper. In 1961 Farran was elected a city alderman and, 10 years later, a Progressive Conservative member of the provincial legislature. As minister of telephones and utilities he was responsible for providing gas supplies to every farmer. Then, as solicitor-general, he introduced breathalyser tests and outdoor camps for young offenders. On stepping down from politics in 1979, Farran became chairman of the Alberta Racing Commission and head of the North American Jockeys' Association. He was a columnist for the Edmonton Journal in the 1980s and a visiting professor at Alberta University from 1985 to 1989. He established the Farran Foundation in the French Vosges as a centre for exchanges between French and Canadian students and, in 1994, returned to Bains-lesBains in the Vosges to accept the Lgion d'honneur from the French government. In 1996 Farran went to Zambia and Zaire to trace the route of a cattle drive made by his brother Kit in the 1950s. He was held up by rebels, and had a close brush with a lion. Three years later he was diagnosed with throat cancer and had his larynx removed; but he mastered talking through a hole in his throat so well that he was able to return to public speaking. Aged 80, while herding cattle at his ranch, Farran was thrown from his horse, breaking his back for the sixth time; the first two injuries were the result of wartime accidents, while the others were caused by riding falls. Farran had a strong Catholic faith, and used to say the Hail Mary before going into action. In later life he said that he did not dislike Jews and bore no ill will towards the British authorities over his arrest and court-martial, believing that they had been placed in an impossible position. His books included Winged Dagger (1948) and Operation Tombola (1960) about his wartime exploits, as well as a history of the Calgary Highlanders and some half dozen novels.

Roy Farran married, in 1950, Ruth Harvie Ardern. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their two sons and two daughters.

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=82833 ROY FARRAN will be remembered in Canada as a farmer, journalist and politician in the province of Alberta where he lived from 1951. His name briefly became a household word in postwar England when he was tried for murder in Palestine, then under British mandate, and acquitted. But it was his wartime fighting record that set him apart as a soldier of exceptional courage, daring and imagination. Active service began as a troop leader of the 3rd Kings Own Hussars during Sir Archibald Wavells Operation Compass against Marshal Grazianis numerically superior Italian force in Cyrenaica in the winter of 1940. Initially intended as a fiveday raid, surprise achieved by Sir Richard OConnors Western Desert Force of two British armoured divisions and the 4th Indian Division provided the opportunity for the first British land victory of the war. Twenty-five thousand prisoners were taken and Cyrenaica cleared of the enemy for the first but not the last time. Farran was in the thick of it from the beginning but saw something of the sombre side of war in the aftermath. While supervising a burial party, he found an Italian tank in which the entire crew had been decapitated by a single shell. Unable to extract the bodies, he laid a petrol trail to the fuel tank and said a short prayer for forgiveness as he applied a match. After the first desert battle the 3rd Hussars were shipped to Crete to reinforce Commonwealth troops preparing to defend the island from the German force that had driven them out of Greece. The airborne invasion of the island on May 20, 1941, was probably the most immediately decisive parachute operation of the war. Fighting in support of a New Zealand battalion in western Crete, Farran was wounded in his right arm and both legs and, after crawling out of his wrecked tank, was taken prisoner. By August he was walking with crutches and plotting his escape from the prison camp hospital on the outskirts of Athens. A fleeting opportunity when a sentrys attention was distracted allowed him to limp to the wire, wearing only a pair of shorts, wriggle underneath and drop into a nearby ditch. Aided by friendly Greeks, he joined others who had escaped and eventually led a party of four of them and ten Greeks in an attempt to sail from Piraeus to Egypt in a fishing boat. The party had planned on a four-day voyage but a storm drove them off course. Ten days out, with diesel fuel, food and water exhausted, they were picked up by a Royal Navy destroyer just 40 miles north of Alexandria. Farran was awarded his first Military Cross for gallantry in Crete and a second for leading the escaped PoWs to safety. (This may be the same as George Bizos fathers escape) As a twice-decorated subaltern with two campaigns under his belt he was appointed ADC to Major-General Jock Campbell, VC, in January 1942. As the new commander of 7th Armoured Division, Campbell was the rising star in the campaign against Rommels Afrika Corps. But returning from a tour of the forward area around Gazala in the generals staff

car, Farran lost control on a patch of newly laid clay. He was thrown clear when the car overturned but General Campbell was killed instantly. Farran later confided that alone in the desert with the other occupants of the car unconscious at the roadside he had contemplated suicide. He considered himself well treated to be kept on the divisional staff by the new commander. Confusion during the Cauldron battle led to withdrawal of the 8th Army to Alamein in the summer of 1942. Farran was again wounded, this time in a Luftwaffe attack on the divisional headquarters, and evacuated to England. Convinced that he was fit to fight by the time his ship docked, he persistently pulled strings until a medical board upgraded him to category A. He joined a draft for the Middle East hoping to rejoin the 3rd Hussars, but a chance meeting with a friend led him instead to the 2nd SAS Regiment being formed near Algiers. Farran commanded a squadron of 2nd SAS in the invasion of Sicily in 1943 and then in mobile operations in the open areas between the advancing Allied armies or ahead of them in Italy. The technique of using small groups in Jeeps mounting machineguns to attack enemy communications paid tactical dividends. Ammunition and fuel supply to such groups was dependent on airdrop with the inevitable risk of detection. Farran appeared to bear a charmed life and to serve in his squadron came to be regarded as a form of life insurance policy. His first stage of Italian operations ended near Pescara, on the Adriatic Coast, in November 1943. 2nd SAS were then withdrawn for operations in northwest Europe and Farran received a second bar to his Military Cross in February 1944. His squadron was flown to Rennes in August 1944. The SAS plan was to operate from forest bases in France in conjunction with the maquis. Air resupply was plentiful and the maquis ready to co-operate. Leaving carnage and destruction in his wake, Farran led his squadron from the Loire through the forests of Darney to Belfort in just under six weeks. In March 1945 Farran was awarded a DSO for his leadership in France, but by then he had returned to Italy after a fleeting visit to Greece. Greece was a sentimental journey, made without official sanction, to find and thank the Athenians who had befriended him after his escape from prison camp in 1941. In this he was successful but he was saddened to witness the outbreak of the vicious civil war between communist and government forces as the Germans withdrew. While in Greece he was alerted to take over an SAS squadron preparing for operations north of Florence. The purpose of Operation Tombola was to invigorate the Italian partisans in Reggio. This he certainly achieved. Farran was ordered to control the enterprise from the safety of Florence but on the night, he accidently fell from the aircraft at the head of the first stick. He led a partisan operation against a German corps headquarters in the Po Valley. This was successful, the corps chief of staff being among the enemy dead, but the attack was carried out earlier than ordered. Farran knew this but had decided not to delay in case his partisans went off the boil. On return to Florence he learnt that knocking out the HQ had been planned to coincide with a main force offensive

and he resolved never again to question a staff decision. Farran found only anti-climax at the end of the war. He served briefly with the 3rd Hussars in Syria, before being sent as an instructor to Sandhurst. He volunteered for secondment to the Palestine Police. The last years of the British mandate were spent trying to keep the peace between the majority Arab population and the Jewish immigrants streaming in from liberated Europe. Britain was in a no-win situation, with its forces harassed by two Jewish terrorist organisations: the Stern Gang and Irgun Zvei Leumi. The abduction of Alexander Rubowitz, a member of the Stern Gang, became linked with Farran through the discovery at the scene of a civilian felt hat with the letters FAR-AN embossed on the sweatband. This was the only possible link with Farran and witnesses to the abduction of Rubowitz failed to pick him out at three identification parades. Even so, such was the sensitivity of public opinion in support of the Jewish situation in Palestine, not least in the United States, that the British High Commissioner decided that he should be committed for trial by court martial on a charge of murder. Scenting that he might be made a scapegoat, he escaped from arrest. Whether any assurance was given remains uncertain but Farran surrendered to the British Consul in Damascus ten days later. The court martial was held in Jerusalem on October 2, 1947, and, in the absence of evidence that Rubowitz was dead, together with failure of the prosecution to link Farran with the alleged crime of murder, the court returned a verdict of no case to answer. The disappearance of Rubowitz was never resolved. Farran resigned from the Army on his return to England but the affair had a sequel. In 1948 a parcel sent to his home was opened by his brother, Rex, who was killed when the package exploded. Roy Alexander Farran was born in Purley, Surrey, in 1921. His family was Irish Roman Catholic. He was educated at Bishop Cotton School, Simla, then in India, and at RMC Sandhurst. On first leaving the Army he worked for Keir & Cawder Limited of Glasgow on the Loch Sloy hydroelectric scheme before being appointed managing director of Keir & Cawder (Rhodesia) Limited. He stood as the Conservative candidate at Dudley and Stourbridge in the general election of 1949 but lost to Colonel George Wigg. He married in 1950 Ruth Ardern, daughter of William Ardern of Calgary, Alberta, and emigrated to Canada to become a farmer. He was a journalist with the Calgary Herald, 1950-54 and 1979-88, and publisher of North Hill News, 1954-73. He was an alderman of Calgary City Council, 1961-71, and minister of utilities and telephones for Alberta, 1972-75, then solicitor-general of Alberta, 1975-79.

He wrote a number of books, including Winged Dagger Adventures on Special Service (1949), The Search (1958) and Operation Tombola (1968). He was visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta from 1984 to 1989 and president of the Canadian Amateur Jockeys Association. He maintained a philosophical attitude to adversity and personal hardship throughout his life. Writing of his experience of help received in Greece, Italy and France during the war he commented: Always the poor, the very poor, would share their last crumb. It was not that they were concerned with politics or war, but just that they pitied someone in an even worse state than themselves. He was honoured by France with the Lgion dhonneur and Croix de Guerre and by the US with the Legion of Merit. His wife died last year. He is survived by their two sons and two daughters. Major Roy Farran, DSO, MC and two Bars, soldier, farmer and writer, was born on January 2, 1921. He died on June 2, 2006, aged 85. http://www.oldcottonians.org/maj_roy_farran.htm
I was just finishing reading the "good stuff' but, because of the Canadian side of the story I did not think it would be that interesting but, here it is. The son of an Irish warrant officer in the RAF, Roy Alexander Farran was born on January 2 1921 in India, and attended Bishop Cotton School at Simla. After Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards (3DGs) and sent to the 51st Training Regiment. Posted on attachment to the 3rd King's Own Hussars in Egypt, he was soon in action at the battle of Sidi Barrani. On May 20 1941, when the Germans invaded Crete, "C" Squadron of the 3rd King's Own Hussars was in its leaguer four miles west of Canea, and 2nd Lieutenant Farran was sent to block the road from Galatos with his troop of tanks. When he saw a party of Germans escorting a group of about 40 hospital patients who had been taken prisoner, he killed the guards. The next day he supported 10th Infantry Brigade in a successful attack on Cemetery Hill. After the Germans broke through the line at Galatos, Farran counter-attacked to retake the village, but was wounded in both legs and an arm, and taken prisoner. He was awarded his first MC. After being flown to a PoW hospital in Athens he made several attempts to escape, eventually managing to crawl under the perimeter wire. Greek peasants passed him from house to house at great personal risk and enabled him to evade his pursuers. The Greeks lent him money to hire a caique, in which he set course for Egypt with a mixed group of British, Australians and others. The vessel encountered severe storms, and was blown off its course for 48 hours; and when it ran out of fuel Farran rigged up a sail made out of blankets. One of the men went off his head after the supply of water was exhausted and Farran, the senior officer on board, had to knock him out before he endangered the whole party. The escapers were too weak to paddle, but their lives were saved by a Sergeant Wright, who made a primitive distiller which provided drinking water from the sea. After nine

days Farran and his comrades, almost dead from thirst, were rescued by a destroyer 40 miles north of Alexandria; he was awarded a Bar to his MC. After an interview with Lt-Col Bill Stirling and a rigorous parachuting course, in May(1943) Farran joined 2nd SAS Regiment as second-in-command of a newly-raised squadron. Despite suffering from malaria, he insisted on leading a raid to capture a lighthouse which was suspected of housing machine-gun units at Cape Passero, on the south-east coast of Sicily. In September Farran commanded "B" Squadron on reconnaissance patrols and sabotage operations in southern Italy. On the night of October 27 he led a detachment of 2 SAS which was dropped north of the River Tronto behind the German lines. Over the next five days his small force blew up the railway line, cut telephone communications and destroyed enemy transport. He was awarded a second Bar to his MC. Farran returned to England early in 1944 and, on August 19, was landed by Dakota on an airstrip at Rennes, Brittany, to command a Jeep squadron based in the Forest of Chtillon, north of Dijon. Over the course of the next four weeks his small force destroyed 23 staff cars, six motorcycles, 36 trucks and troop carriers, a goods train and a supply dump holding 100,000 gallons of petrol. At Beaulieu, the Germans were panicked into blowing up their wireless station and evacuating the garrison. While about 500 enemy were killed or wounded, seven members of the squadron were killed, two were wounded, one was missing and two taken prisoner. Farran was awarded a DSO in the name of Patrick McGinty, a pseudonym he had used since escaping from the Germans in 1941; he claimed that the name came from a song about an Irish goat which swallowed a stick of dynamite. Following a reconnaissance trip to Greece, Farran led 3 Squadron, 2 SAS, in Operation Tombola to harass German troops withdrawing from Italy. Although forbidden to take personal command, he was not prepared to direct the operation from a wireless set in Florence; and, having persuaded the US aircrew to say that he had accidentally fallen out of the aircraft while they were dispatching the advance party, he was dropped on Mount Cusna, east of La Spzia. As soon as reinforcements arrived from the SAS, Farran raised a force composed of British commandos, Italian partisans and escaped Russian prisoners which became known as the Battaglione Alleato. At the end of March he led a night attack on the German 51st Corps HQ at Albinea, near Rggio Nell'Emilia, again in contravention of orders. Although the enemy put up a spirited defence, a German general and his chief of staff were among the casualties. Subsequently Farran led a series of raids against Highway 12, south of Modena. After the victory parade at the end of the campaign, he expected to be court-martialled; but his operations had been of great assistance to US IV Corps, and those pressing for his court martial had to give up when the Americans said that they were awarding him the Legion of Merit. When the war ended, Farran went to Norway with 2 SAS to help with rounding up the Germans there. In 1946 he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Becoming second-in-command of the 3rd Hussars, he accompanied them to Palestine. One day he was lunching in the officers' mess at Sarafand when terrorists attacked a nearby ammunition dump. Farran and his comrades pursued them, wounding two. After a spell as an instructor at Sandhurst he returned to Palestine to put his knowledge of clandestine intelligence-gathering at the disposal of the Palestine Police. He formed "Q" Patrols, made up of hand-picked undercover police officers whose job it was to infiltrate the terrorists' network.

There were claims that a hat bearing Farran's name had been found at the spot where a 16-year-old Jewish youth, Alexander Rubowitz, had been abducted; and there were also reports that the youth had been killed. After allegations had appeared in the Palestine Post, Farran was put under house arrest. Farran claimed to have a water-tight alibi, but believed that he would be sacrificed by the British authorities in order to demonstrate impartiality in dealing with the Jews and Arabs. When he heard that he was to be charged with murder, he stole a car and, accompanied by two of his NCOs, crossed the border into Syria and told his story to the head of the British Legation in Damascus. At his trial it was maintained that no body had been discovered and that Farran had not been identified in a line-up by those who claimed to have seen the boy taken away in a car. The case was dismissed because of lack of evidence. But when he was in Scotland shortly before the first anniversary of the boy's disappearance, Farran's youngest brother, Rex, was killed by a letter bomb sent to the family home near Wolverhampton; Farran suspected the Stern gang. Farran subsequently emigrated to Alberta, where he made his home for the rest of his life, though he was to offer his services to the War Office during the Suez crisis. He took up dairy farming at Calgary, worked as a reporter and columnist for the Calgary Herald and, in 1954, founded the North Hill News, which became the country's leading weekly newspaper. In 1961 Farran was elected a city alderman and, 10 years later, a Progressive Conservative member of the provincial legislature. As minister of telephones and utilities he was responsible for providing gas supplies to every farmer. Then, as solicitor-general, he introduced breathalyser tests and outdoor camps for young offenders. On stepping down from politics in 1979, Farran became chairman of the Alberta Racing Commission and head of the North American Jockeys' Association. He was a columnist for the Edmonton Journal in the 1980s and a visiting professor at Alberta University from 1985 to 1989. He established the Farran Foundation in the French Vosges as a centre for exchanges between French and Canadian students and, in 1994, returned to Bains-lesBains in the Vosges to accept the Lgion d'honneur from the French government. Three years later he was diagnosed with throat cancer and had his larynx removed; but he mastered talking through a hole in his throat so well that he was able to return to public speaking. Aged 80, while herding cattle at his ranch, Farran was thrown from his horse, breaking his back for the sixth time; the first two injuries were the result of wartime accidents, while the others were caused by riding falls. Farran had a strong Catholic faith, and used to say the Hail Mary before going into action. In later life he said that he did not dislike Jews and bore no ill will towards the British authorities over his arrest and court-martial, believing that they had been placed in an impossible position. His books included Winged Dagger (1948) and Operation Tombola (1960) about his wartime exploits, as well as a history of the Calgary Highlanders and some half dozen novels. Roy Farran married, in 1950, Ruth Harvie Ardern. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their two sons and two daughters. Strathconas Honour a Hero By Capt Mike Gough,13/06/06 The Regiment honoured Major Roy Farran at a military funeral in Calgary on 12 June 2006. In a truly Regimental effort, soldiers from all Squadrons made the trip south on Sunday night and executed a full military procession from Saint Anthonys Church to

McInnis & Holloway Funeral Home at the slow march, ending with rifle volleys. His Honour, The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta presented the surviving family with a Union Jack and Maple Leaf in a private ceremony.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=47163

Roy Farran
Major Roy Alexander Farran DSO, MC & Bar (2 January 1921 " 1 June 2006) was a soldier, politician, farmer and author, best know for his exploits with the Special Air Service during World War Two.

Early life
Farran was born in India where his father was serving with the RAF. After attending the Bishop Cotton School, (Shimla) and Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards.

Service during early World War Two

He served with 51st Training Regiment and was then attached to the 3rd King's Own Hussars in Egypt seeing action at the December 1940 to February 1941 at the Battle of Sidi Barrani, when Commonwealth forces defeated the Italian army in North Africa. Farran took part in the Battle of Crete but while leading a tank attack he was wounded and captured. For these actions he received his first MC. He escaped under the perimeter fence from the Athens prisoner-of-war hospital and sailed for Egypt with a group of escapees. After a stormy nine-day passage, where they ran out of water, the party was picked up by a destroyer north of Alexandria - and Farran received a bar to his MC. By January 1942, Farran was ADC to Major General Jock Campbell, commander of 7th Armoured Division. On February 26, shortly after Campbell's VC was gazetted, Farran was driving him when the car overturned and Campbell was killed. Wounded again later that year, Farran returned to England, but was back in north Africa in early 1943. Here, after parachute training, he joined 2nd SAS. He then led a raid on Cape Passero lighthouse in Sicily and carried out reconnaissance patrols and sabotage in the south. One of the most spectacular of these was in October 1943 when Farran dropped with a 2nd SAS detachment north of the River Tronto behind German lines. In five days his force destroyed transport, cut communications and blew up railway lines - a third MC followed.

Operation Wallace
On August 19 1944, 60 men and 20 Jeeps from the 2nd SAS landed by Dakota transport at the American held Rennes airfield. Operation Wallace, one of the most successful post D-day SAS operations, and it was led by Farran, then aged 23. Farran penetrated 200 miles through enemy lines in four days, joining the base set up by the earlier Operation Hardy near Chatillon, north of Dijon. His operation, ending on September 17, resulted in 500 enemy casualties, the destruction of 95 vehicles, a train and 100,000 gallons of petrol. SAS casualties were light. On the way back through France, Farran's squadron took illicit leave in Paris. Operation Wallace brought him a DSO.

Operation Tombola
Following Operation Wallace, and back in Italy, Farran took part in Operation Tombola, harassing the German withdrawal. Despite strict orders against taking personal command, Farran, wangling a flight in a US aircraft, managed to "fall out" just east of La Spezia where he joined up with his men. During the latter phase of operations, Farran raised the "Battaglione Alleato" comprising British, partisans and escaped Russian prisoners, which, in Albania and again against orders, attacked the German 51st Division headquarters. Farran anticipated a court-martial for disobeying orders, but the Americans

awarded him their Legion of Merit, so the matter was dropped. He was in Norway when the war ended.

Service after World War Two

Postwar, Farran was in Palestine with the 3rd Hussars, followed by a posting to Sandhurst as an instructor. But with the end of the British Mandate in sight, he returned to Palestine. With the Palestine Police he set up the "Q" patrols to infiltrate terrorist networks, but was in serious trouble when it was alleged that a cap bearing his name had been found near where a 16-year-old Jewish youth had been abducted and allegedly shot. When the allegations became public, Farran was put under house arrest. Although he claimed to have a cast-iron alibi, when he heard he was to be charged with murder, he stole a vehicle and with others crossed into Syria where he contacted the British Legation in Damascus. Prevailed upon to return, accompanied by a senior officer of the Palestine Police, Farran was detained in Allenby Barracks. Convinced the British would disown him in the interests of assuaging public opinion, he decamped, but gave himself up when an armed underground Zionist faction called Lehi (a.k.a. "The Stern Gang"), took reprisals against his friends. When Farran came to trial, the case was dismissed. Nobody had been found, and witnesses claiming to have seen the victim taken away failed to identify Farran in a line-up. When his youngest brother Rex was killed by a letter bomb sent to the family home in Codsall a year after the boy's disappearance, Farran, away at the time, suspected Lehi.

After military service in the UK

Once out of the army Farran seems to have found it difficult to settle. He worked as a quarryman in Scotland, went to Africa and, in 1950, ran as Conservative candidate for Dudley & Stourbridge, losing to George Wigg, a future Labour minister.

Move to Canada
Farran then went to live in Alberta, Canada, where he spent the rest of his life. A man of many parts, Farran farmed and worked as a journalist and, in 1954, started the weekly North Hill News. From 1971 to 1979, Farran was in the provincial legislature where he held two ministerial appointments. His later jobs included chairmanship of the province's racing commission and, in the 1980s, he was a visiting professor at the University of Alberta. He later established a foundation in the French Vosges, providing Franco-Canadian student exchanges. For this he received the Legion d'Honneur in 1994 to add to his 1946 Croix de Guerre. Despite losing his larynx to cancer, he learned to speak through an incision in his throat and remained active. He published a number of books including two about his wartime experiences - Winged Dagger (1948) and Operation Tombola (1960).

http://en.allexperts.com/e/r/ro/roy_farran.htm