British War Medal 1914-20 : Private A G Farmer, 3 Battalion, AIF

British War Medal 1914-20. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Aubrey George Farmer was born at Homebush in Sydney, NSW, in 1892. He was educated at Colston's School, in Bristol, England, but returned to Australia in 1908, and was employed as a jeweller before enlisting in the AIF in August 1914. Abbreviating his name to 'Aubrey Farmer', he became an original member of B Company, 3 Battalion, with the service number 325. The unit sailed for Egypt aboard HMAT A14 'Euripides' in October 1914. At the Gallipoli landing, and in the following days, Farmer distinguished himself by his bravery and leadership, and was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He is believed to have been killed on 29 April, in an attempt to recover the body of Captain Charles Edward Leer, commander of C Company, who was killed on the day of the landing. 3 Battalion's history 'Randwick to Hargicourt', published in 1935, relates that: 'Farmer was one of the most extraordinary men in the battalion. He made no secret of the fact at Mena, when the battalion was training, that everything that savoured of war was abhorrent to him, and he elected to remain in the Q.M.'s store during that period. But during those first days on the Peninsula he proved himself to be a man of quite unexpected calibre-the great crisis developed another man, and Farmer's work throughout those first three days was of such a nature that he was awarded a posthumous D.C.M.-an honour probably unique in A.I.F. history.' These unusual remarks are supported by a letter to Farmer's mother from 1195 Private Leonard Bennett Willcock of 3 Battalion, who wrote: 'I am proud to be able to say I knew your son very well. I used to see him in the store tent every day while we were in Egypt.' He goes on to say that 'The next I saw of him was after he was dead laying outside one of the trenches.' Farmer's body was not recovered, and his name is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial to the missing. His brother Reginald William Bartlett Farmer RANR also died during the war.