249046 Pte. Artrhur Farrar British Army 2/7th Btn. Duke of Wellington West Riding Regiment from:Batley, Yorkshire (d.6th June 1944) My late Uncle Arthur Farrar joined the Duke of Wellington West Riding Regiment on 19th of October 1939 and he disembarked in France with the 2/7th Battalion as part of the BEF on 18th of April 1940.
He was evacuated on the 13th of June 1940. After his father Jonah Drake Farrar died in late January 1941 he joined his older brother Jonah Drake Farrar, my father, in the 11th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment.
They were then both sent to serve in the Middle East and North Africa in February 1943. In May 1943 they were both compulsory transferred to the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment with whom they were both involved in the invasions of both Sicily and Italy before being returning to the UK in early November 1943.
They were then in training as assault troops for the invasion of Normandy in 1944. On D-day 1944 they were both part of A Company 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment which was first on Gold Beach at 7.32 am on 6th of June 1944. My late father's landing craft was the first to land and Arthur's followed shortly thereafter.
Unfortunately Arthur was killed instantly as he set foot on the beach by a mortar shell.
He is buried in the Bayeux Commonwealth Military Cemetery. He was just 25 years old and had not the war intervened he had a very promising career ahead of him in the first division of the English Football League as he had been in talks with both leading Northern and London Clubs.
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