Martin Baker Farndale was born in Trochu, Alberta, Canada, on 6 January 1929, the oldest son of Alfred and Margaret Louise. There the family lived until 1935 in Huxley, in a wooden house built by his father, on the prairie. The slump came after the 1929 crash, and in 1935, the family returned to England, where they lived at Middleton-one-Row in Durham, England. Then in 1936 they moved to Sycamore Lodge, Thornton-le-Moor, Yorkshire. Martin went to Wensley House private School in Northallerton and then to Northallerton Grammar School. His family moved to 117 Crosby Road, Northallerton in 1940 and then to Gale Bank Farm, Wensley in Wensleydale in 1944. Martin then went to Yorebridge Grammar School, Askrigg (the school was founded in 1601) until 1946 until he joined the Indian Army at Caterham on 3rd September 1946. At Yorebridge, he won the Headmaster's Cadet Corps Prize.

A resume of his military service

Martin joined the Indian Army on 3 September 1946, and transferred to the British Army in 1947, after Indian independence. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. He served in Egypt, Germany, Malaya, South Arabia, Ireland. He commanded The Chestnut Troop, 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, 7th Armoured Brigade, 2nd Armoured Division, 1st British Corps and Northern Army Group. He became Commander-in-Chief British Army of the Rhine and Master Gunner St James’s Park. He was awarded the General Service Medal with clasps for Malaya, South Arabia and Northern Ireland. He was awarded Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977. He became Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1980 and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1983. He was awarded the 125th Anniversary of Canada Medal for services to Canada. He was awarded an honorary degree of Literature at Greenwich University.

His military service in more detail

Martin joined the Indian Army on 3 September 1946, and transferred to the British Army in 1947, after Indian independence. He went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he was in his company's boxing and motor-cycle team. He won the Brian Philpotts Memorial Prize for Military History. He was Intake 1A, Dettingen Company and passed out on 20 October 1948. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. He attended the RA Young Officers' Course.

He started his military career in 80th Light Anti-aircraft Regiment in the Suez Canal Zone. In January 1949, he sailed by Troop Ship to Egypt. Soon he was selected for the elite Royal Horse Artillery and he joined First Regiment Royal Horse Artillery in 1950. He returned from Egypt in 1951. He served in E Battery and then in B Battery. He was then posted to the Royal Artillery Staff of 7th Armoured Division at Verden in Lower Saxony, from 1954 to 1957. He then served with 53rd (Louisberg) Battery and as Adjutant of 22nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (which he used to affectionately call "22 Light ack ack").

In 1959, he went to the Staff College at Camberley.

He then went to the Gunner Staff of 17th Gurkha Division in Malaya from 1960 to 1962, where he saw active service during the final phases of the Malayan Campaign.

In 1963, he served for two years in the Military Operations Directorate of the War Office (which then became the Ministry of Defence).

He returned to First Regiment RHA in 1964 to command the Chestnut Troop, first in Germany (Hildesheim) and then in Aden during the Radfan Campaign in the arid mountains of the Protectorate. In Aden, he saw action against tribesmen in the Radfan mountains, bordering the Empty Quarter. The Regiment was equipped with 105 mm pack howitzers.

After Battery Command, he went back to the Staff College for three years as an instructor from 1966.

From 1969 to 1971, he was given command of First Regiment. He was the first artillery commanding officer to take his regiment to Northern Ireland and to serve in an infantry role on the streets of Belfast. He was also the first Lieutenant Colonel to command a warship. Accommodation was sparse in those early days, so HMS Maidstone, which was destined for the breaker's yard, was instead sailed from Portsmouth to Belfast and acted as a maritime barracks for the Regiment. His command included a hundred sailors, the Maidstone's maintenance team. Also during his command, the Regiment was granted the freedom of the City of Nottingham and a parade took place through the city on 22 April 1970. There is a painting by Terence Cuneo of the parade (Martin got to know Terence Cuneo very well during his career and was involved in the commissioning of many of Cuneo's military paintings - for further information about Terence Cuneo see www.cuneosociety.org). After Northern Ireland, Lieutenant Colonel Farndale took the Regiment to Detmold in Germany, where the Regiment was equipped with the Abbot self propelled gun.

Next he had two years on the Defence Policy Staff in the Ministry of Defence.

In 1973, he was promoted to Brigadier. The focus of his military career was with the British Army of the Rhine in then West Germany. He commanded 7th Armoured Brigade (The Desert Rats) from December 1973 to December 1975. The Headquarters was in Soltau, Lower Saxony and he lived at the Jagd Haus Weiss (originally the hunting lodge of the Weiss family) at Marbostel, near Soltau. He planned the Brigade Exercise, Red Rat 74. He also reorganised the battlefield headquarters of the Brigade from a large conglomeration of vehicles, to a more tactical and manoeuvrable headquarters of 22 vehicles around a 'heart' of 6 armoured vehicles.

In New Year 1975/76 he moved back to the Ministry of Defence as Director of Military Operations (1976 to 1978) and then as Director of Military Operations in the rank of Major General (1978-1980). He was DMO during the final phases of the guerrilla campaign in Rhodesia after Ian Smith's unilateral declaration of independence. He was largely responsible for setting up the British Monitoring Force which helped to end the guerrilla war and bring about an independent Zimbabwe. He was also responsible for considering the increased military requirements for dealing with a spiralling illegal immigrant problem in Hong Kong.

In 1980 he became Colonel Commandant Army Air Corps. He learnt to fly a helicopter and built up a considerable log of flying time, particularly during his later commands in Germany. He continued in that post until 1988.

He commanded 2nd Armoured Division as Major General from June 1980 to March 1983. The Headquarters was in Lubbecke and he lived at Cross Keys House, a house of remarkable architecture with no corners and curved edges. He commanded the Division during Exercise Spearpoint in September 1980, during which the Division's 14,000 men and 150 tanks took the full weight of an enemy 'Orange' simulated Soviet break-in. He also planned Second Division's Exercise Keystone in November 1982.

He commanded 1st (British) Corps as Lieutenant General from March 1983 to 1985. This was the fighting component of the British Forces in Germany, still during the height of the Cold War. The Headquarters was at Bielefeld and he lived at Spearhead House. In those days, tests and demonstrations of ability to withstand an invasion from the east were critical to keeping the peace and winning the Cold War. In 1984, he devised and oversaw the vast Exercise Lionheart, a show of strength of the height of the Cold War, which involved 131,000 British troops, including tens of thousands or Territorials and Army Reservists and which extended over 3,700 square miles. During a second phase a further 6,300 German, 3,500 Dutch, 3,400 American and 165 Commonwealth (from Australia, New Zealand and Canada) took part. It was intended to test BAOR's reinforcement plans and was the biggest military exercise to be held since the Second World War. In September 1983, he showed the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, around his Corps during an exercise, during which now infamous photographs were taken of the now Lady Thatcher riding in a Chieftain tank.

Finally, he commanded the British Army of the Rhine, at the time 55,000 strong, and also commanded the Northern Army Group, an Army Group consisting of a British, Dutch, German, and American Corps, from its headquarters at Rheindalen. This was from 1985 to 1987. He lived at Flagstaff House. He worked to implement a revised concept of operations for the Northern Army Group. In the event of a Soviet invasion, the new plans would enable NATO forces to 'bide our time and then strike viciously, at the time of our choosing, at an exposed flank or sector.' These new plans were tested in 1987 during another major exercise, Exercise Certain Strike, which proved itself to be the largest and most complex field exercise of its type staged in Europe since the D-Day landings in 1944.

He was appointed Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1980 and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1983.

His family

In 1955, he married Margaret Anne Buckingham, age 27 of Mill House, Findon, West Sussex at Findon Church. They had met in Egypt, where Martin was serving with the Royal Artillery and Anne was in the Foreign Office. After the wedding, they had their first Quarter at Seremban in Malaya. It was after that posting that they travelled together, in 1962, in a Ford Prefect from Malaya through Thailand, India, Pakistan, Persia, Turkey, Greece, Italy and France and back to England. There is a super 8 film, which has been converted to video of this journey. They had one son, Richard who was born at Epsom, Surrey on 17 April 1963 and who later followed him into the Royal Artillery.

After retiring from the Army

Martin retired from the Army in January 1988. After Army Service they lived at East Preston in West Sussex.

He became a Director of Short Brothers plc, Defence Adviser to Westland Helicopters and to Deloitte & Touche in the City. He was also a very active chairman of the Royal United Services Institute from 1989-1993. He became a Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Wheelwrights Livery.

He became Master Gunner of St James' Park (an office dating back to the seventeenth century), the honorary head of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, on 5 November 1988. His principal duty as Master Gunner was to keep the Queen, the Royal Regiment's Captain General, informed of all matters pertaining to the Royal Artillery. He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Horse Artillery, Honorary Colonel of First Regiment Royal Hose Artillery and of Third Battalion, the Yorkshire Volunteers, his home county. He was Colonel Commandant of the Army Air Corps. He also had a close interest in the South Notts Hussars.

He was President of the Worthing Branch of the Royal Artillery Association from 1988 to 2000. He attended almost every branch meeting and in 1999, to his great pride, the branch won the Burton Cup for the best achievement in fundraising towards the museum. The branch unveiled a plaque to his memory at Gifford House chapel in Worthing in December 2001. The plaque reads "In Memory of General Sir Martin Farndale 1929-2000, Commander British Army of the Rhine and Northern Army Group 1985-87, Master Gunner St James's Park 1988-96, President Worthing Branch The Royal Artillery Association 1988-2000".

From 1989 until his death, he worked tirelessly to create a museum of artillery at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. This was known as the Royal Artillery Museum Project and became Royal Artillery Museums Limited, of which he was Chairman. The museum opened a year after his death in May 2001 and is known as Firepower. It houses the vast regimental collection of guns, medals, books and archives and is also an interactive museum of the history of artillery. The principal building of the museum is now known as the Farndale Building and a plaque at the entrance is dedicated to Martin and states "without his vision, dedication, leadership and commitment, this museum would not exist."

His principal hobby was writing definitive histories of the Royal Artillery, a task which he started early in his military career and continued until he died. He wrote the History of the Royal Artillery, France 1914-1918 (published 1987). He wrote the History of the Royal Artillery, The Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base, 1914-1918 (published 1988). He wrote the History of the Royal Artillery in the Second World War (The Years of Defeat 1939-41) (published 1996). He wrote the History of the Royal Artillery (The Far East Theatre 1941-1946) which was published posthumously. He also wrote many articles for the British Army Review and the Royal Artillery Journal.

He was also Chairman of the English Heritage Battlefields Trust from 1993. The trust endeavours to preserve battlefields from being destroyed by new roads of buildings. Martin succeeded in saving the site of the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) from developers.

He took part as a guest lecturer during a number of battlefield tours covering both the First and Second World Wars.

He was a member of the East India and Sports Club from June 1962.

He was also passionately interested in the Farndale family history and the information contained on this website is almost entirely the result of his work.

Martin Baker Farndale died at the age of 71 at Cromwell Hospital, London on 10 May 2000. He was cremated at Worthing Crematorium and is buried at Wensley Church, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire beside his parents. A Memorial Service was held at St Martin-in-the-fields in London on 26 September 2000.

Royal Artillery Museum Project

Sir Martin Farndale devoted the later years of his life to the planning of and fundraising for a museum of the Royal Regiment of Artillery at Woolwich

Click here for a link to the home page of Firepower, the Royal Artillery museum at Woolwich

Click here to find out more about the Royal Artillery

Click here to find out more about the Regiment with which Sir Martin Farndale was most closely associated, First Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

Parliamentary debate on the museum

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