21
July 1919 to 11 September 2018
FAR00856
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Served in the RAF
Headlines of John Farndale’s life are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical
context is in green.
Essex
1919
John Horace
Thomas Farndale, son of Horace Ernest Farndale and Rosalie (nee Mole)
Farndale (FAR00584),
was born on 21 July 1919 in Southampton, and baptised
at St Mary the Virgin, Prittlewell, Essex on 7 September 1919 (St Mary the Virgin, Prittlewell PR). The birth was
registered in Rochford District, Essex in the third quarter of 1919.
1921
John’s father
Horace died when John was only three years old.
1925
John Farndale (right) with his step father Thomas
Gill, in about 1925
His daughter
Patricia told me that he went to Clarke’s Private
College, London for a while.
Before the Second
World War, Patricia tells me that he became a trained book keeper and
accountant, while also being trained in his mother’s restaurant.
1939
When the Second
World War started, Patricia tells me that her father joined the Royal Engineers
initially repairing searchlights.
1940
John Farndale with his sister
Kathleen Farndale in about 1940
Patricia was told
that he then trained to be a Spitfire pilot and he took her to a cemetery
behind RAF Coltishall where he showed her the graves
of his squadron, killed in the Battle if Britain. There were many eighteen to
twenty years olds, and many were Polish. John
couldn’t fly on the day when many members of his Squadron were shot down due to
a heavy nose bleed.
He later joined
the catering branch, which he hated.
He was later
trained for the Far East Theatre, and avoided being posted to Burma, where many
of his friends died on the construction of the Burma railway.
John recalled
seeing doddle bugs decimate London. There was an occasion when his soldiers
were training in a gymnasium when it was hit, but John had not made it on time
so was not there.
He was also
trained in a secondary duty as a paramedic.
On another
occasion Patricia was told that a bomb dropped next John and he curled himself
up in a ball and survived an explosion. He used to tell his family "my
guardian angel was with me when that bomb exploded".
Surrey
1942
John H T Farndale
married Mildred Irene Croft in south eastern Surrey in the second quarter of
1942.
Norwich, Norfolk
1949
John Horace
Thomas Farndale, married Rose Irene Taylor Bessey (“Pat”) on 20 January 1949 at
the Norwich City Hall Registry Office, Norwich District, Norfolk (MR and Patricia, their daughter). They met at
Saint Faith’s.
1951
Patricia R Farndale (FAR01046)
was born in 1950. She was born at Abyad, Egypt, a British Armed Forces birth
overseas.
Syndey, Australia
On 10 August 1951
John Horace Farndale arrived in Sydney having departed Southampton via Aden and
Port Said on the Ministry of Transport ship, Asturias. He was with the
RAF. Travelling with him were Rose Irene Farndale, 31 (John’s wife); Sharon
Joan Pearson, 6; Leslie Laurence Bessey, 10; Robin Charles Bessey, 5; and
Patricia Farndale, 9 months.
Norwich
2003
2003 to 2005 –
lived at 14 Patricia Avenue, Horsted, Norwich.
2011
Rose Irene
(“Pat”) Farndale died on 20 November 2011.
2018
John Horace
Thomas Farndale, died at Norwich Hospital on 11 September 2018, aged 99.
Probate Cardiff on 8 February 2019.
John and Pat
Farndale are buried in St Faith’s Garden of Rest.