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Farquhar, Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Douglas, D.S.O. (1874-1915) First commander of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Born 17 September 1874 in England, Francis Farquhar was educated at Eton and joined the Coldstream Guards on 29 April 1896 as a 2nd Lieutenant, and promoted to Lieutenant 24 January 1898. Shortly before the outbreak of the Boer War Lieut. Farquhar was sent to New Orleans, in the United States to purchase mules, rejoining the 2nd Battalion in South Africa on 7 December 1899 just before the battle of Magersfontein. For most of January 1900, Lieut. Farquhar was engaged in training scouts for the 2nd Battalion. On 6 February 1900 Lieut. Farquhar was offered and accepted the post of aide-de-camp to General Pole-Carew. He was promoted to Captain on 20 April 1901. He was posted to The Chinese Regiment of Infantry in December1901. Upon his return from China he was posted for duty in the Somaliland campaign of 1903-1904. He served on the General Staff , War Office from 1908 to 1913 and attained the rank of Major in 1910 and to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1913.
In October 1913 Lieutenant-Colonel Farquhar was appointed Military Secretary to the Duke of Connaught, The Governor-General of Canada. In August 1914 a new regiment was born in Ottawa, the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Lieutenant-Colonel Farquhar was selected to command the new unit. The PPCLI arrived in France at the close of 1914. On 20 March 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel Farquhar was killed in action near St. Eloi. He is interred at Voormezeele, enclosure #3.
Sources:
London Times
Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Douglas Farquhar’s service record, PPCLI.
Canada in Flanders by Sir Max Aitken
The Coldstream Guards, 1885-1914 by Colonel Sir John Hall, Bart., C.B.E.
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