James Farndale, son of James and Margaret (nee Murray) Farndale (FAR00521), was born in Stockton in 1916. His birth was registered in Stockton in the fourth quarter of 1916.

1921

Census 1921 – Stockton

James Farndale, 48, a general labourer in foundry at Blairs & Co Engineering Works, Norton Road, Stockton, but out of work

Margaret Farndale, 43, home duties

Annie Farndale, daughter, 16, single, a printer’s assistant at Harrison Printing Works on Norton Road

Albert Farndale, son, 13, an errand boy with Brown Joiner

James Farndale, son, 4

Eritrea

1941

Military Service

4460826 Private James Farndale aged 24 of the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) Second Battalion died of wounds on 16 March 1941 in Eritrea.

He was buried at Keren War Cemetery, Grave Reference 3.A.3. (Inscribed Beloved Son of James and the Late Margaret Farndale, God Grant him eternal rest).

Operation Appearance was a British landing in British Somaliland on 16 March 1941 against troops of the Italian Army. In August 1940, seven months previous, the British had withdrawn from British Somaliland, after it had been invaded by the Italian army. The British and Empire forces from the United Kingdom, British India, Australia and South Africa conducting Appearance made the first successful Allied beach landing of the war and retook the colony.

On 9 May 1936 Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI) was formed from Ethiopia, Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and France, with Italian forces in the AOI threatening the British and French colonies in East Africa. Italian forces endangered British supply lines along the coast of East Africa, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Egypt, the Suez Canal, French Somaliland and British Somaliland were vulnerable to attack

The Invasion of British Somaliland

On 3 August 1940, the Italians invaded with two colonial brigades, four cavalry squadrons, armoured, artillery and air support. Kassala was bombed and attacked and the British garrison was overmatched. The Somaliland Camel Corps skirmished with the advancing Italians as the main British force slowly retired. On 5 August British Somaliland was cut off from French Somaliland. Surrounded and close to being cut off Major-General Alfred Reade Godwin-Austen was instructed by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Henry Maitland Wilson to withdraw from the colony. The 2nd battalion Black Watch, supported by two companies of the 2nd King's African Rifles and parties of the 1st/2nd Punjab Regiment covered the retreat to Berbera. By 2:00 p.m. 18 August most of the contingent had been evacuated to Aden with the HQ sailing with HMAS Hobart the morning of 19 August. Italian forces entered Berbera that evening. British casualties were 38 killed and 222 wounded; and the Italians had 2,052 casualties.

Landing at Berbera

The operation to recapture British Somaliland began on 16 March 1941 from Aden, in the first successful Allied landing on an enemy-held beach of the war. The 1/2nd Punjab Regiment and 3/15th Punjab Regiment Indian Army (which had been evacuated from the port in August 1940) and a Somali commando detachment, landed at Berbera from Force D (the cruisers HMS Glasgow and HMS Caledon, the destroyers HMS Kandahar and HMS Kipling, auxiliary cruisers Chakdina and Chantala, Indian trawlers Netavati and Parvati, two transports and ML 109). When the Sikhs landed, the 70th Colonial Brigade "melted away". Repairs began on the port and supplies for the 11th African Division began to pass through within a week, saving 500 miles (800 km) of transport by road. On 20 March, Hargeisa was captured. The British moved on to re-capture the whole of British Somaliland and on 8 April, Brigadier Arthur Reginald Chater was appointed Military Governor. British forces were now able to advance into eastern Ethiopia, supplied through Berbera. The Somaliland Camel Corps was reformed by mid-April and supported British forces over the next few months mopping up Italian led guerrilla forces.

Keren War Cemetery, Eritrea

The small town of Keren is about 90 kilometres west of Asmara. Keren War Cemetery is 2 kilometres west of the town. The site, on top of the famous Keren pass and overshadowed by Cameron's Ridge on the opposite side of the road, was presented by the Chief and the Community of Ad Hadembas, and an inscription recording this has been built into the cemetery wall.

Keren was the last Italian stronghold in Eritrea and the scene of the most decisive battle of the war in East Africa in February and March 1941. Guarding the entrance from the western plains to the Eritrean plateau, the only road passing through a deep gorge with precipitous and well fortified mountains on either side, Keren formed a perfect defensive position. On these heights the Italians concentrated some 23,000 riflemen, together with a large number of well sited guns and mortars. A preliminary assault by United Kingdom and Indian troops was repulsed after a week of bitter fighting, although they gained and held a valuable position on Cameron's Ridge, on the left of the road. The final battle began a month later. After ten days of gruelling combat the Commonwealth troops succeeded in forcing their way through the seemingly impregnable defences on the ridge and finally through the 200 metre long road block which the Italians had blasted at the narrowest point in the pass. Keren was taken on 27 March. The defeated Italian force retreated in some disarray to Asmara, which fell to Commonwealth forces on 1 April, and the Italian surrender was taken at the port of Massawa on 8 April. KEREN WAR CEMETERY contains 440 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 35 of them unidentified. The KEREN CREMATION MEMORIAL stands within the cemetery and commemorates 285 Sikh and Hindu soldiers from India and Pakistan killed on the Keren battlefield during the Second World War, whose remains were cremated in accordance with their faith. Three East African soldiers are also commemorated on the memorial.

No. of Identified Casualties: 405