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Wartime Heritage ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War I Yarmouth Connections
Name: George Collins Farish Rank: Captain, 25th Battalion Lieutenant, 40th Battalion, 1st Reinforcing Draft Date of Birth: July 13, 1881 Place of Birth: Yarmouth, NS Date of Enlistment: April 17, 1915 Place of Enlistment: Yarmouth, NS Age at Enlistment: 33 Height: 6 Feet 4 Inches Trade: Railway Official Marital Status: Single at Enlistment/ Married Muriel Bell of Montreal in October 1916. Religion: Church of England Next of Kin: Henry G Farish (Father) Yarmouth, NS Date of Death: October 28, 1918 Age at Death: 37 Cemetery Mountain Cemetery, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada Plot: K. 30. Commemorated on Page 405 of the First World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on September 1 Listed on the Nominal Roll of the 40th Battalion Listed on the Holy Trinity Church Tablet, Yarmouth, NS Commemorated on the Yarmouth Monument Born in 1881, George Collins Farish was the son of Henry Griggs Farish and Sarah Farish (Lent), of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He was employed with the Coast Railway Company, part of the Halifax and Southwestern Railway system as superintendent. He later went to Montreal and was the Canadian Northern office as sales agent for the Inverness Coal Company. He resigned his position to return to Yarmouth and enlisted with the 40th Battalion. He went to Halifax and was shortly granted a Lieutenant’s commission. He recruited a platoon in Yarmouth and accompanied them to Valcartier, Quebec. He proceeded overseas in charge of a draft of 250 men. While in England he was transferred to the 25th Battalion in France on December 4, 1915. In the spring of 1916 he was wounded at Ypres and severely shell-shocked. In June of 1916 he was in Endsleigh Palace Hospital for Officers in London with a wound made by shell casing. He was later invalided to Canada and he and his wife spent February 1917 in Jamaica and June, July and August in Yarmouth. In early 1918 he had recovered and called for duty at Aldershot, near Kentville, NS. and later sent to Halifax where he was placed in change of the Pay Offices of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces with the rank of Capitan. In the summer of 1918 he was stricken with influenza and a severe attack of appendicitis. He returned to duty; however, in October he became ill once again and died of influenza and pneumonia. A full military funeral was held on October 31, 1918 at Holy Trinity Church, Yarmouth. Captain Farish was buried at Mountain Cemetery, Yarmouth. Lord Beaverbrook in his history of the war wrote the following:
George Collins Farish
Return to Casualty List “The Germans, on the other hand, had, beside the Crater, a well built trench made out of one of our support trenches dug on April 4.  From this they launched on the night of the 14th four successive hand-bombing attacks against the garrison. Grenades were hurled against the position of Lieutenant Farish who own men hurled grenades and repulsed the enemy. Lieutenant Farish was grenade officer of the 25th.  From this point onward the action gradually merged into the ordinary forms of trench warfare except for the peculiar violence of the artillery.”  and  “On the morning of April 14 the Germans four times attempted to take the Canadian Craters 6 and 7 by grenade assaults but the 25th Battalion repulsed them every time. Simultaneously an attempt was made to oust the garrison in Crater 1. The enemy to the number of 25 charged boldly across the open in broad daylight.  They were covered by intense artillery fire. The Canadian position had however been considerably strengthened and Lieutenant Farish had extended the outpost line towards Crater 2. When the enemy was well clear of their own trenches so they could not readily retreat, they were greeted with rapid machine gun fire and retired hurriedly leaving a number of dead and wounded on the field.”
Photo: Wartime Heritage 2018
25th Battalion (War Diary)  Sat., Dec 4, 1915 IN THE FIELD – FLANDERS, BELGIUM Fine day Right half Battalion paraded for bathes.  LIEUT G C FARISH reported for duty.