While on patrol over the Thames River, Flying Officer Farrar, navigator of a Mosquito aircraft, and his pilot, Flight Lieutenant Frederick ('Fred') John KEMP, heroically attempted to intercept a German V1 flying bomb, ('buzz bomb' or 'doodlebug'). The aircraft was destroyed and the remains of F/O Farrar were never recovered.
Military Service-
Rank: Flying Officer
Service No: 142059
Age: 20
Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Division: 68 Squadron [Motto: Czech: 'Vždy připraven' (Always ready)]
He was the son of Donald Frederick and Margaret (née Hadgraft) Farrar, of Carshalton, Surrey, England; younger brother of David F. Farrar, the aeronautical engineer.
James Donald Farrar grew up in Carshalton and was educated at Sutton Grammar School. His English teacher from Sutton Grammar School, Alwyn Trubshaw, later wrote a piece about his former student called 'James Farrar: An Appreciation'; Trubshaw has been quoted as saying, "I say taught English, but it would be truer to say I taught English in his presence only. He had no need of my teaching. He was a natural born writer."
Volunteering for the RAF, Farrar was called up in Feb 1942; he received his commission as Pilot Officer in 1943 and served with 68 Squadron.
James Donald Farrar was an 'unsung poet', a gifted writer whose remarkable works went unrecognized while he was alive. He has been called 'a literary genius'. After his death his mother unearthed his journals, his short stories and his poetry and in 1950, 'The Unreturning Spring', a collection of his prose and poetry, was published.
At the age of 16, Farrar wrote the following poem while watching aerial dogfights over Woodcote, Surrey, during the Battle of Britain.....
September 1940
I walk endlessly, no clock drips by the hours,
The burnished hedgerows, clotted and high,
The still woods, the dead meadows, the closed flowers,
Shrunken under that bright scarred sky.
A light-play, as of sun on August leaves,
A height-soft moan, a wooden intermittent rattle,
And, as the scrollèd conflict eastward weaves,
Feelers drooping darkly out of battle.
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They come slowly, soft tap-roots questing down,
At the groping tip of one glisters a bead of light:
I see them, like waterflies struggling not to drown,
Soundlessly pass into earth, and meet night.
Military Service-
Rank: Flying Officer
Service No: 142059
Age: 20
Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Division: 68 Squadron [Motto: Czech: 'Vždy připraven' (Always ready)]
He was the son of Donald Frederick and Margaret (née Hadgraft) Farrar, of Carshalton, Surrey, England; younger brother of David F. Farrar, the aeronautical engineer.
James Donald Farrar grew up in Carshalton and was educated at Sutton Grammar School. His English teacher from Sutton Grammar School, Alwyn Trubshaw, later wrote a piece about his former student called 'James Farrar: An Appreciation'; Trubshaw has been quoted as saying, "I say taught English, but it would be truer to say I taught English in his presence only. He had no need of my teaching. He was a natural born writer."
Volunteering for the RAF, Farrar was called up in Feb 1942; he received his commission as Pilot Officer in 1943 and served with 68 Squadron.
James Donald Farrar was an 'unsung poet', a gifted writer whose remarkable works went unrecognized while he was alive. He has been called 'a literary genius'. After his death his mother unearthed his journals, his short stories and his poetry and in 1950, 'The Unreturning Spring', a collection of his prose and poetry, was published.
At the age of 16, Farrar wrote the following poem while watching aerial dogfights over Woodcote, Surrey, during the Battle of Britain.....
September 1940
I walk endlessly, no clock drips by the hours,
The burnished hedgerows, clotted and high,
The still woods, the dead meadows, the closed flowers,
Shrunken under that bright scarred sky.
A light-play, as of sun on August leaves,
A height-soft moan, a wooden intermittent rattle,
And, as the scrollèd conflict eastward weaves,
Feelers drooping darkly out of battle.
Share article
They come slowly, soft tap-roots questing down,
At the groping tip of one glisters a bead of light:
I see them, like waterflies struggling not to drown,
Soundlessly pass into earth, and meet night.
While on patrol over the Thames River, Flying Officer Farrar, navigator of a Mosquito aircraft, and his pilot, Flight Lieutenant Frederick ('Fred') John KEMP, heroically attempted to intercept a German V1 flying bomb, ('buzz bomb' or 'doodlebug'). The aircraft was destroyed and the remains of F/O Farrar were never recovered.
Military Service-
Rank: Flying Officer
Service No: 142059
Age: 20
Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Division: 68 Squadron [Motto: Czech: 'Vždy připraven' (Always ready)]
He was the son of Donald Frederick and Margaret (née Hadgraft) Farrar, of Carshalton, Surrey, England; younger brother of David F. Farrar, the aeronautical engineer.
James Donald Farrar grew up in Carshalton and was educated at Sutton Grammar School. His English teacher from Sutton Grammar School, Alwyn Trubshaw, later wrote a piece about his former student called 'James Farrar: An Appreciation'; Trubshaw has been quoted as saying, "I say taught English, but it would be truer to say I taught English in his presence only. He had no need of my teaching. He was a natural born writer."
Volunteering for the RAF, Farrar was called up in Feb 1942; he received his commission as Pilot Officer in 1943 and served with 68 Squadron.
James Donald Farrar was an 'unsung poet', a gifted writer whose remarkable works went unrecognized while he was alive. He has been called 'a literary genius'. After his death his mother unearthed his journals, his short stories and his poetry and in 1950, 'The Unreturning Spring', a collection of his prose and poetry, was published.
At the age of 16, Farrar wrote the following poem while watching aerial dogfights over Woodcote, Surrey, during the Battle of Britain.....
September 1940
I walk endlessly, no clock drips by the hours,
The burnished hedgerows, clotted and high,
The still woods, the dead meadows, the closed flowers,
Shrunken under that bright scarred sky.
A light-play, as of sun on August leaves,
A height-soft moan, a wooden intermittent rattle,
And, as the scrollèd conflict eastward weaves,
Feelers drooping darkly out of battle.
Share article
They come slowly, soft tap-roots questing down,
At the groping tip of one glisters a bead of light:
I see them, like waterflies struggling not to drown,
Soundlessly pass into earth, and meet night.
Military Service-
Rank: Flying Officer
Service No: 142059
Age: 20
Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Division: 68 Squadron [Motto: Czech: 'Vždy připraven' (Always ready)]
He was the son of Donald Frederick and Margaret (née Hadgraft) Farrar, of Carshalton, Surrey, England; younger brother of David F. Farrar, the aeronautical engineer.
James Donald Farrar grew up in Carshalton and was educated at Sutton Grammar School. His English teacher from Sutton Grammar School, Alwyn Trubshaw, later wrote a piece about his former student called 'James Farrar: An Appreciation'; Trubshaw has been quoted as saying, "I say taught English, but it would be truer to say I taught English in his presence only. He had no need of my teaching. He was a natural born writer."
Volunteering for the RAF, Farrar was called up in Feb 1942; he received his commission as Pilot Officer in 1943 and served with 68 Squadron.
James Donald Farrar was an 'unsung poet', a gifted writer whose remarkable works went unrecognized while he was alive. He has been called 'a literary genius'. After his death his mother unearthed his journals, his short stories and his poetry and in 1950, 'The Unreturning Spring', a collection of his prose and poetry, was published.
At the age of 16, Farrar wrote the following poem while watching aerial dogfights over Woodcote, Surrey, during the Battle of Britain.....
September 1940
I walk endlessly, no clock drips by the hours,
The burnished hedgerows, clotted and high,
The still woods, the dead meadows, the closed flowers,
Shrunken under that bright scarred sky.
A light-play, as of sun on August leaves,
A height-soft moan, a wooden intermittent rattle,
And, as the scrollèd conflict eastward weaves,
Feelers drooping darkly out of battle.
Share article
They come slowly, soft tap-roots questing down,
At the groping tip of one glisters a bead of light:
I see them, like waterflies struggling not to drown,
Soundlessly pass into earth, and meet night.
Inscription
1944
ROYAL AIR FORCE VOLUNTEER RESERVE
FLYING OFFICER
FARRAR J. D.
