George Herbert, (Sir)

Colonel, Assistant Quarter Master General to Centre Division of Union of South Africa Forces. Active Citizen Force. Died of wounds 18-5-15, age 56, motor trolley collided with a train at Knibis, near Gibeon, German South West Africa, on 17-5-15. Third son (born 17-6-1859 at Chatteris) of the late Charles Farrar MD, of Chatteris, and Mrs Helen Farrar, of Bedford. An engineer, he went to South Africa in 1879 and lived in the Transvaal. Founder and chairman of East Rand Proprietary Mines Ltd. Took part in Jameson Raid of 1895 and sentenced to death for treason by the Afrikaners, but remitted on payment of £25,000 fine. Awarded DSO (London Gazette 19-4-01) for services during Boer War. Knighted in 1902. MP for Georgetown in the first parliament of Union of South Africa in 1910-11. Created Baronet on 2-2-11. Married Ella Mabel Waylen on 3-6-1893, had six daughters. Bedford Farm Cemetery, Gauteng, South Africa.

From Andy Pay's research into the Marquis de Ruvigny' s Roll of Honour the following:

Volume 1, Part 1, Page 129, FARRAR, Sir George Herbert 1st Bart D.S.O. Colonel and assistant Q.M General - Central Force, Union Defence Forces, late Hon. Col South African Light Horse. Son of the late Charles Farrar, of Chatteris, co Cambridge, M.D. , by his wife Helen, (The Crescent Lodge, Bedford) , sister of Sir Frederick Howard and dau of John Howard. Born Chatteris 17-6-1859, educated Bedford Modern School and on leaving there entered the engineering business of his Uncle Sir Frederick Howard going in 1879 to South Africa to the Port Elizabeth and East London branches. Eight years later he and his brothers established themsleves at Johannesburg, where in a few years he became one of the leading men in the mining industry of the Witwatersrand. His cheif enterprise was the formation of the East Rand Proprietary Mines, of which he was chairman from its inception to the day of his death. He was for some time a member of the Legislative assembly of the Transvaal and Leadre of the opposition. For his share in the Jameson raid he was tried for treason and sentenced to death, but the sentence was remitted on payment of a fine of £25000.

When the South African war broke out he raised two regiments of South African Horse, and was appointed Major , Kaffrarian Rifles, 1-12-1900 and served in this campaign as major on the staff of the Colonial Division 1899-1900. He took part in the operations in the Orange Free State, including the defence of Wepener, operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, aug to sep 1900, operations in the Orange River Colony 1900 including actions at Wittebergen 1-29 July) and in Cape Colony, south of the Orange River. His services were mentioned in despatches ( London Gazette 16th April 1901 ) and he was awarded the Queens medal with 4 clasps and the D.S.O (1900).

After the conclusion of peace in 1902 he took an active part in the work of re-organisation, and when responsible government was granted to the Transvaal , he was unanimously elected leader of the progressive party in the house of assembly, in opposition to the inistry of General Botha. In 1903 he was elected president of the Witwatersrand Chamber of mines , and took a leading part in the negotiations which led up to formation of The Union of South Africa.

He had been knighted in 1902 and on 2-2-1911 was created a Baronet for his services on this occasion.He was M.P. for Georgetown in the first parliament of the Union of South Africa 1910-11 but in dec 1911 business demands in connection with the east rand co compelled him to retire from political work in order to devote his whole energies to the re-organisation of that enterprise.

When the European war broke out he was in England on a visit and was about to join General Sir Hubert Hamiltons staff with the army in Belgium , but the day before he was to have left he was ordered by the authorities to South Africa. On arrival he was appointed to General McKenzies Force with the rank of Colonel and was despatched to German South West Africa as Assistant Q.M-General.

Proceeding to Luderitz Bay in advance of the main force he was engaged in the organisation of the base camp , and subsequently had charge of the restoration of the railway and of providing the water supply to the force, an operation of primary importance in that country.

On 19th May 1915, he was returning from a tour of inspection when the motor trolley in which he was travelling collided with a construction train at Kuibis , near Gidson, German South West Africa, and Sir George succumbed to his injuries early next morning.

Sir George Farrar was one of the best known men in South Africa to whose advancement he had, by legislative work, by attention to mining process, and to practical sympathy with agricultural, powerfully contributed.

He married at Johannesburg 2-6-1893 , Ella Mabel ( Chicheley Hall, Newport Pagnell,Bucks & Bedford Farm , near Johannesburg , Transvaal), dau of the late Charles William Waylen, I.M.S. and had six daus , Helen Mabel b 2-10-1894, Muriel Frances b 6-4-1896, Gwendeline b 14-7-1897, Georgina Marjorie b 17-8-1901, Kathleen Elizabeth b 9-5-1907 and Ella Marguerite b 28-4-1911.

Captain, 5th Battalion (London Rifle Brigade) The London Regiment (Territorial Force). Second son of William George Sedgwick, of Byfield, a draper, by his second wife Jane, daughter of William Thompson, of Eydon ; and brother to Private H Sedgwick (q.c.); born Byfield, Northants, 26th October 1891. Educated Bedford Modern School and employed afterwards as a warehouseman with Messrs. Cook, Son & Co., St. Paul's Churchyard : joined the London rifle Brigade in 1910; volunteered for foreign service at the outbreak of war in August 1914; obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant, 26th February 1915; was promoted Lieutenant, 1st February 1916, and Captain in August 1916; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from November 1914 ; spent most of the winter of 1914-15 at Ploegsteert : was wounded abd gassed 2nd May 1915, while the regiment was holding trenches at Ypres, where they had relieved the Canadians after the first gas attack by the Germans : went back to France in August 1916, and was again wounded while leading his company in an attack on Leuze Wood near Combles on 10th September 1916 and died in the Field Ambulance on the following day, Sunday. Buried at Corbie. His Colonel wrote, "Since he came to us in the 3rd Battalion he has been quite invaluable, and I got to know and appreciate his qualities more fully. He was a born soldier and beside that a most charming comrade ; one does not often come across men like him. i have to ourn the loss of a very gallant friend." and his Major wrote, "We will all miss him terribly : he was a most gallant and excellent officer, and I always knew that any duty or order entrusted to him would be carried out. He had a most charming personality and was universally popular with everyone." A brother officer wrote : "After dark the night he was wounded, I was in my trench when I heard a familiar voice call my name and I found him lying on a stretcher. He knew that he would not live but his thoughts were not for himself at all but only for the regiment and for those of us still left unharmed." He was a first-class cricketer and tennis-player being captain of the first tennis team at Messrs. cook, Son & Co., and took part in the march to brighton made by a company selected from the L.R.B. in the summer of 1914, when they broke the record for that distance formerly held by the LOndon Scottish : unmarried. Aged 25. Buried in La Neuville British Cemetery, Corbie, Somme, France.

SETCHELL

Alfred Knight

Second Lieutenant, 9th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment. Died 21st March 1918 in France & Flanders. Age 20. Son of Alfred and Jessie Laura Setchell, of 16, Spenser Rd., Bedford. Educated at Bedford Modern School. Commemorated on ARRAS MEMORIAL, Pas de Calais, France. Bay 3. See also Bedford St Peters

Major, 7th Hariana Lancers, Indian Army. Killed in action 13th April 1915. Aged 42. On 12 April 1915 at Shaiba, Mesopotamia, Major Wheeler took out his squadron in an attempt to capture a flag which was the centre-point of a group of the enemy who were firing on one of our picquets. He advanced, attacked the enemy's infantry with the lance, and then retired while the enemy swarmed out of hidden ground, and formed an excellent target for the Royal Artillery guns. On 13 April Major Wheeler led his squadron to the attack of the North Mound. He was seen far ahead of his men, riding straight for the enemy's standards but was killed in the attack. Awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his valour in Mesopotamia in 1915. See the Victoria Cross Reference site for more details and picture.

Life six (three quarter) posthumous portrait by Barbara Chamier, originally unveiled 1925. Location: as for Lt Col Mobbs. (See Second World War Memorial above for picture). NOTE: Bedford School also had a Major G Wheeler VC, who survived (no relation to the OBM Wheeler).

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