Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

James Farquhar was born in the town of Kensington, South Australia in September 1871. He was raised and lived in South Australia his whole life. Farquhar had two siblings, a sister and a brother. Farquhar was married but his wife died before he enlisted for war. They had three kids. Farquhar worked as a miner and followed a Religion. He was a Presbyterian.

Before he left for war, Farquhar had grey eyes, a fair complexion and his hair was turning grey. He was 5 feet and 4 inches tall (162.56cm tall) and was 138Ibs (approx. 62.6kg).

James Farquhar was 44 years, 1 month old when he first enlisted. Farquhar enlisted in Adelaide, South Australia on 11th October 1915. He had no previous experience in serving in the army. Farquhar was given the service number of 784. Farquhar was appointed to the 1st Australian Remount Unit, 3rd Squadron on 8th November 1915. The Remount Unit was in charge of looking after and training horses (later on more animals) in Egypt for war. He embarked on 12th November 1915, from Melbourne on the HMAT ORSOVA “A67. The ship stopped at Fremantle on 18th November 1915, before leaving for Egypt at midnight that day. The trip over to Egypt was reported trouble free with good discipline from the men and no serious cases of crime. Life aboard the ship was tough with training of the men held each day and lectures to the officers frequently held. The troops on board the ship consisted of all squadrons of the 1st Australian Remount Unit (Farquhar’s unit), H.Qrs and 2 squadrons of the 2nd Australian Remount Unit also, a large number of Australian Nursing Sisters were also on board.

The unit arrived in Suez, Egypt on 8th December 1915, to then disembark and catch a train to Zeitoun on 9th December 1915, where they set up camp.

The unit took their first draft of horses on 14th December 1915. The draft consisted of 198 horses. On 26th December 1915, the unit marched out of Zeitoun to Maadi (Meadi) to form a depot there. Originally, the unit was made to help the Gallipoli men by supplying horses but the Gallipoli evacuation changed the intentions and the unit become apart of the Remount Services. On 24th December 1915, the new depot unit received 356 horses. Some of the horses that the unit received (from any draft) were rather wild so training them was time consuming and work was hard for many of the men. On 29th December 1915, the unit received their first draft of mules (donkeys), 716 in total.

On 27th March 1916, the finalised decision to reduce the 1st and 2nd Australian Remount Units to one was made. April 22nd 1916, the men who were returning to Australia because they were discharged for the new reduced unit proceeded to Suez expecting to embark at once. Farquhar did not return to Australia as he was chosen to be apart of the new unit, which had left the camp at Maadi on 21st April 1916, to march to Heliopolis with all the horses and mules.

On 21st July 1916, the first fatal accident since the unit was first formed occurred when a horse kicked a man (service number 1942) over the heart and the man died almost immediately.

James Farquhar was discharged due to his unit being disbanded, “services no longer required.” Farquhar was to return to Australia on 22nd November 1916.

Farquhar was reported to enlist again later on and on his service sheets, he was said to be a dental boy and be apart of the tunnelling reinforcements. He was discharged from his new units on 28th July 1917 due to having been found medically unfit for further service due to misconduct. Farquhar did not die at war.

While apart of the 1st Australian Remount Unit, Farquhar received three medals. He was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service in the Remount Unit. Since he received these medals, enlisted for war twice and participated in the war Farquhar showed great Anzac Spirit. He was committed to his country and showed great loyalty and spirit.

James Farquhar served in the war even though he had children who would be orphans if anything happened to him. He showed bravery and loyalty for Australia.