Roy Farran

Major Roy Alexander Farran (2 January 1921 – 2 June 2006) was a British-Canadian soldier, politician, farmer, author and journalist.

He was highly decorated for his exploits with the Special Air Service (SAS) during the Second World War.

Farran became widely known after his court-martial on a charge of murdering an unarmed 17-year-old member of the Jewish underground militant group Lehi during his command of an undercover Palestine Police unit.

Farran was born on 2 January 1921, either in Purley, Surrey, or in Shimla, India, to a family of Irish Roman Catholics (the Ó Faracháin were from County Donegal).

His father was a Warrant Officer in the Royal Air Force.

He was educated in India at the Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

On 21 May, the 10th Infantry Brigade launched a successful assault on Cemetery Hill, in which Farran participated.

German forces were eventually able to break through the British and Commonwealth positions around Galatas, and Farran was part of a counter-attack in an attempt to retake the village.

He protested about the unsuitability of his light tanks for the task but was told that no heavy tanks were left.

Farran later wrote of his guilt at allowing the dangerous lead position to be taken by a subordinate -"I did not care for orders when it suited me, but this time I had chosen to obey them because I knew that I would be killed if I did not. I should have been in that leading tank. Instead, there was Skedgewell dead and his pretty young wife waiting at home. I felt as if I had murdered him."

During the action he was wounded in the right arm and both of his legs, and as a result he was captured by German forces.

It was at this time that he was awarded the Military Cross, for gallantry during his service in Crete.

After being captured, Farran was flown to a hospital for prisoners of war in Athens for treatment, and by August he was able to walk with the aid of crutches.

He made several unsuccessful attempts to escape, and finally succeeded when a sentry became distracted; Farran was able to crawl under the wire and make his way unseen to a nearby ditch.

Moved between a series of houses, he was eventually able to link up with a number of friendly Greek civilians and three other escaped Australian and British prisoners, and was lent money to hire a caïque to sail from the port of Piraeus to British-held Egypt.

The group hoped to make it in four days, but a storm pushed the boat off course.

The boat ran out of fuel after two days, and Farran created an ad hoc sail from blankets; their water supplies ran out shortly after, and Farran was forced to knock out one man who became agitated as a result.

Fortunately one of the prisoners, a Sergeant Wright, was able to make a crude water distiller that produced enough drinkable water for the party to survive.

After 10 days adrift, the boat was spotted by a Royal Navy destroyer 40 mi off the coast of Alexandria.

Farran was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross as a result of leading the Greeks and prisoners to freedom.

This was a British offensive against Italian forces in North Africa, which began in December 1940, and participated in the Battle of Sidi Barrani.

In the aftermath of one battle, he was detailed to supervise a burial party and came across a damaged Italian tank, its entire crew dead; unable to recover the bodies, Farran set the tank's petrol tank on fire.

After Operation Compass came to an end, the Hussars were transferred to the island of Crete, to reinforce the British and Commonwealth forces that were stationed there after their retreat from Greece.

Farran was attached to the regiment's 'C' Squadron, which was located several miles west of Canea when the Germans began their invasion of Crete on 20 May 1941.

Farran was ordered to take a troop of tanks and block a road that led from the village of Galatas, and shortly afterwards sighted and killed a number of German troops escorting a group of 40 captured hospital patients.

The troop came under attack from Stukas and well-hidden ground forces.

Returning from this mission Farran's troop encountered several Germans who attempted to surrender; he ordered them shot, later writing that the incident occurred in the heat of the moment.

In January 1942, Farran was appointed as the Aide-de-camp for Major General John "Jock" Campbell, the newly promoted commander of the 7th Armoured Division and recipient of the Victoria Cross (for actions in November 1941).

On 26 February 1942, he was driving Campbell in his staff car during an inspection of the forward fighting area around Gazala when he lost control of the car on a road of freshly laid clay.

The car overturned, throwing Farran out but killing Campbell in the process and knocking the other occupants unconscious; he later admitted that while he awaited rescue, he had contemplated suicide.

When a new divisional commander was appointed, Farran remained with the divisional staff.

When the British Eighth Army was forced to retreat towards El Alamein during the summer of 1942, Farran was wounded during a Luftwaffe attack on the division's headquarters.

He was subsequently evacuated to Britain, but pulled a number of strings until he was able to convince a medical board in February 1943 to pass him as capable for combat; he was transferred to three separate units before joining a group of new recruits heading for the Middle East to join the 3rd Hussars.

However, he met up with an old friend which led to him attempting to join the new 2nd Special Air Service being formed near Algiers.

After an interview with the regiment's commander, Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling, and a parachute training course, Farran became the second-in-command of a squadron.

He commanded it during Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, and despite suffering from malaria led the squadron in an assault against a lighthouse at Cape Passero which was believed to hold a machine gun position.

After graduating from Sandhurst, Farran was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) and sent to the 51st Training Regiment.

Farran was posted on attachment to the 3rd The King's Own Hussars, which was serving in the North African Campaign at the time, and joined the regiment just in time for the beginning of Operation Compass.

After his brother was killed in a revenge attack, Farran emigrated to Canada where he forged a successful business and political career, holding a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1979 sitting with the Progressive Conservative caucus.

He served as a cabinet minister in the government of Premier Peter Lougheed during that period.