Martin Farndale

Sir Martin Farndale
Born	6 January 1929
Died	10 May 2000
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Commands held	1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery 7th Armoured Brigade 2nd Armoured Division 1st British Corps British Army of the Rhine
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

General Sir Martin Baker Farndale KCB (6 January 1929 – 10 May 2000) was a British Army General who reached high office in the 1980s.

Military career

Educated at Yorebridge Grammar School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Farndale was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1948.^[1] He went to the Staff College, Camberley in 1959.^[1]

In 1969 he was appointed Commanding Officer of 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery which was deployed to Northern Ireland at the early stages of The Troubles.^[1] In 1973 he was appointed Commander of 7th Armoured Brigade in Germany before, in 1978, he returned to the UK to become Director of Operations at the Ministry of Defence in which role he had to organise the disarming of guerillas in order to facilitate the creation of the future nation of Zimbabwe.^[1] He was appointed General Officer Commanding 2nd Armoured Division in Germany in 1980.^[1]

In 1983, he became GOC of 1st British Corps.^[1] Finally, in 1985, he was made GOC of British Army of the Rhine and Northern Army Group.^[1]

In retirement he wrote four volumes of the History of the Royal Artillery.^[1]

Family

In 1955 he married Margaret Anne Buckingham^[1] and together they went on to have one son.^[2]

References

1. Martin Farndale at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. Obituary: Sir Martin Farndale The Times, 15 May 2000