After completing his training, in the RAFVR, as a pilot he joined No. 501 Squadron RAF in September 1939 and remained with the squadron when it went to France in May 1940. He claimed his first victories during the Battle of France, with 'shares' in two bombers downed and a He 111 shot down solo. During August 1940 he claimed 5 more and in October 1940 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal. By now a sergeant pilot, he was commissioned a pilot officer on 3 December 1940. In February 1941 Farnes was posted to No. 57 Operational Training Unit as an instructor. In November 1941 he transferred to No. 73 Operational Training Unit in Aden. He was confirmed in his rank and promoted to war-substantive flying officer on 3 December 1941. Farnes was posted to No. 229 Squadron RAF in North Africa as a flight commander in February 1942. He flew with the squadron on 27 March 1942 to Malta where he later took command of the squadron. Farnes returned to North Africa in late May 1942. On 26 July 1942, he was promoted to war-substantive flight lieutenant. He was then posted to Iraq, where he joined the RAF headquarters staff and remained there until March 1945, receiving a promotion to war-substantive squadron leader on 1 May 1944. On return to the United Kingdom he took command of No. 124 Squadron RAF, a command he retained until the end of the war. He ended the war with the acting rank of wing commander.
Later life
After the war, Farnes became a liaison officer for training centres with the Air Ministry. He was granted a permanent commission in the RAF in the rank of squadron leader on 1 September 1945. In 1948, he became a flying instructor. Farnes remained in the RAF until 1958, when he retired on 27 June with the rank of wing commander. In 2010, Farnes said: Farnes died on 28 January 2020 at the age of 101 in his home in West Sussex. He was the last ace fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain leaving two surviving members of The Few.
Personal life
Farnes's first wife was Pamela Barton who died in 1989. They married in Worthing, Sussex, in 1948. Farnes was married to Cynthia from 1994 until her death in 2012. He had a son, Jonathan, and a daughter, Linda; a second son, Nicholas, died in 1954.
