| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Richard Edward Farnaby was born in Scorborough in 1898, the eldest child of Ralph and Lilian, nee Ransom. He was the only one of their nine children not to be baptised and seems to have spent much of his life with his paternal grandmother at her farm in Lockington, whilst his family resided at their own farm in Scorborough.
When war broke out Richard enrolled in the Royal Engineers as Driver 267571. He was aboard the HMT Aragon on 30 Dec 1917 when it was torpedoed and sunk by the German Type UC II Submarine SM UC-34 just outside the port of Alexandria. 610 lives were lost but, thanks to the endeavours of the crews of Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Attack and the armed trawler HMT Points Castle, Richard was one of the lucky ones to be rescued. He was reported missing locally but his father quickly received news of his rescue and that he had arrived safely in Egypt.
After the war, on 24 Apr 1923, Richard married Alice Nendick, the daughter of farmers William and Mary Ann, nee Eastwood, in Etton. Richard died on 9 Aug 1927, in Beverley Cottage Hospital, from head wounds sustained in a traffic accident when a car collided with his motorcycle and side car. At the time Richard was a farmer in his own right in Scorborough. Alice went to live with her parents in Lund. Alice and Richard did not have any children and Alice never remarried. She died in 1994 at the age of 92.
For his part in the war Driver Richard Edward Farnaby received the British War and Victory medals and is remembered on the Scorborough Roll of Honour.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |