Full Download - Elocal.co.nz

Maurice Farr of Pukekohe is in
the unusual position of being
able to say that his father
fought in WW1. Private Edgar
Farr was a well known identity
at Bombay, where Farr Road is
named after him and served
in France with the Australian
Infantry Forces Battalion 13-23
Reinforcements, embarking
on December 16, 1916.
“My dad fought in
the 1914-1918 War”
“Dad was 68 when he married mum. She was a herd tester he
met on the farm – she was 28. He had been married before but
his first wife died and they had no children. He was born in 1886
in Wiltshire, one of a family of 14, leaving school at 10 to make
wagon wheels. He later went to Sydney where he had a cousin in
the Irish Guards who used to guard convicts. Dad worked in the
Outback, droving and as a groom in stables in Portland, Victoria so
when he enlisted in the A.I.F. he was in demand for his skills with
horses. He embarked on December 16, 1916. Horses were used
to haul heavy artillery, ammunition, stores and the army needed
men who understood horses and who could handle them when
they reacted to shells exploding around them. Dad was a brilliant
horseman.
“I remember dad telling me when I was a kid that he could have
reached out with his rifle and touched a German trench. He also
spoke of seeing his mates drowning in mud. He talked about being
taught the three ways to kill with a rifle - shot, bayonet or butt. The
soldiers were issued with wooden 303 Smiley rifles and Mack 103
Lee-Enfields – they weighed a ton. He had two years active service
in France. We think he was at the Battles of Bullecourt or Polygon
Wood near Ypres, before he was wounded. He told me he didn’t
understand why he had dropped his rifle until his sergeant said to
him “you’re off to Blighty, mate.” He had copped a piece of shrapnel
in his right arm. After being sent back to Australia he came to New
Zealand to work and found his way to Franklin where he got a land
allotment on Pinnacle Hill Road and started farming.”
Maurice recalls his father as a true gentleman who never swore,
was very laid back, never lost his temper and who liked his whisky.
A faded photo shows the pair of them on the beach at Kaiaua, a
pipe smoking Edgar dressed immaculately in a suit and tie looking
fondly down at a blond two year old Maurice. “We both had snowy
hair.”
“Dad always wore a poppy on Anzac Day and went to the Dawn
Parade at Bombay – I still go there – but like many who were in the
thick of it, he didn’t talk much about what he went through. He
never let anyone waste food and never complained about anything
– he would say things like “I’ve slept in worse places.” He was
still cutting barberry hedges with a slasher in his 70s. My mother
Patricia was in the NZAF during the second war and I was always
interested in the army, joining the Territorials when I was 32. Dad
died in 1975, when he was 88. I always looked up to and admired
my father, and I still do.”
Advertising sales 09 239 1699, sales@elocal.co.nz www.elocal.co.nz 11