Charles Percy FARRIER

FARRIER, Charles Percy

Service Number: Officer
Enlisted: 19 August 1914
Last Rank: Lieutenant
Last Unit: 10th Infantry Battalion
Born: 31 October 1894, place not yet discovered
Home Town: Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality, New South Wales
Schooling: King's School Parramatta
Occupation: Mining Inspector, Apprenticed Surveyor
Died: Killed In Action, Gallipoli, 9 May 1915, aged 20 years
Cemetery: Lone Pine Cemetery, ANZAC
III A 1
Memorials: Adelaide National War Memorial, Broken Hill Barrier District Roll of Honour, Broken Hill War Memorial
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World War 1 Service

19 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, Officer, 10th Infantry Battalion
20 Oct 1914: Involvement AIF WW1, 10th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: ''
20 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Adelaide
9 May 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 10th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli,

--- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: awm_unit: 10 Battalion awm_rank: Lieutenant awm_died_date: 1915-05-09

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Biography

Son of William Charles Valentine Farrier, who at the outbreak of the Great War was residing at Thomas Street, Broken Hill, being a NSW Government Mining Inspector on the Barrier Mines.

He was apprenticed as a Surveyor at the British Mine.

He was interested in military matters, and on 30 April 1913 received his first commission (provisionally) as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 81st (Wakefield) Infantry, and on 1 July 1914 his appointment was confirmed.

He held this commission at the time of joining the AIF.  At the outbreak of the Great War he was undergoing a map-reading course at a Military School of Instruction being conducted at Gawler; but upon same being suddenly abandoned, he returned to Broken Hill and offered his services for overseas.

He was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion on 19 August 1914 and arrived in camp at Morphettville on 28 August 1914, when he was posted to original ‘B’ Company.

At Mena, Egypt, when this company merged with original ‘H’ Company and became the new ‘C’ Company, he was appointed a Platoon Commander in same, and promoted to rank of Lieutenant on 1 February 1915.  He landed with his company from the Prince of Wales at the historic landing at Anzac on 25 April 1915.

On 9 May 1915 whilst standing and observing through a pair of field-glasses, he was shot through the head, and never regained consciousness.   He was killed by a Turkish sniper, whom he was trying to locate.

At the time of his death he was standing only a few yards from Captain G D Shaw OC of ‘C’ Company and Lieutenant W G Cornish, also of that company.  Colonel Weir had just completed his morning round of the trenches and had barely passed him when the tragic happening occurred.

On 14 May 1915 his parents were advised that he had been wounded, and advice that he had been killed in action did not arrive until 3 June 1915. 

On the day that his father received notification of his death, his mother underwent a serious operation and died the next day.  She passed away in complete ignorance of the death of her son.  It was a sad coincidence that mother and son, although so many miles apart, should die within such a short time of each other.

He was 21 years of age when he was mortally wounded, and was a very popular young Officer.

Extract from “The Fighting 10th”, Adelaide, Webb & Son, 1936 by C.B.L. Lock; kindly supplied courtesy of the 10th Bn AIF Association Committee, April 2015. 

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