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His name briefly became a household word in postwar England when he was tried for murder in Palestine, then under British mandate, and acquitted.
Farran found only anti-climax at the end of the war. He served briefly with the 3rd Hussars in Syria, before being sent as an instructor to Sandhurst. He volunteered for secondment to the Palestine Police. The last years of the British mandate were spent trying to keep the peace between the majority Arab population and the Jewish immigrants streaming in from liberated Europe. Britain was in a no-win situation, with its forces harassed by two Jewish terrorist organisations: the Stern Gang and Irgun Zvei Leumi.
The abduction of Alexander Rubowitz, a member of the Stern Gang, became linked with Farran through the discovery at the scene of a civilian felt hat with the letters “FAR-AN” embossed on the sweatband. This was the only possible link with Farran and witnesses to the abduction of Rubowitz failed to pick him out at three identification parades. Even so, such was the sensitivity of public opinion in support of the Jewish situation in Palestine, not least in the United States, that the British High Commissioner decided that he should be committed for trial by court martial on a charge of murder. Scenting that he might be made a scapegoat, he escaped from arrest.
Whether any assurance was given remains uncertain but Farran surrendered to the British Consul in Damascus ten days later. The court martial was held in Jerusalem on October 2, 1947, and, in the absence of evidence that Rubowitz was dead, together with failure of the prosecution to link Farran with the alleged crime of murder, the court returned a verdict of no case to answer. The disappearance of Rubowitz was never resolved.
Farran resigned from the Army on his return to England but the affair had a sequel. In 1948 a parcel sent to his home was opened by his brother, Rex, who was killed when the package exploded.
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I am upset with the cowardly approach of pointing fingers at Farran. It seems that after he died, people who wrongly beleive in the scandal of the murder are jumping onto their one chance to convince people he is guilty. This is ridiculous of course. They obviously do it now, after he is dead and cannot defend himself. He is such an honourable man and I cannot stand when people bring him down with one wrongly accused murder. He was proven innoncent. Did anyone ever think that they could not find proper evidence because there was none?
Dear "Upset" (I love people who accuse others of cowardice and dishonor and yet hide behind anonymity):
Farran, from all reports, including his own, seems to have been a wild, uncontrollable adventurer. Nick Kardahji, a pro-Arab MA student, published his thesis two years ago and termed Farran "a disturbed individual". He probably was pathological - which would explain his ability to kill Germans as well as his commanding officer in a car accident unless he was also an alcoholic. He tortured and mutilated a 16 year old kid and so, he was a war criminal. He admitted it to his commanding officer and to his priest. And yet, for 59 years couldn't find the courage, even anonymously (like you do) to inform the family who helped him bury the body and where is it.
He, sir, was the coward.
Oh, there was not not evidence. His diary where he detailed all what happened for some legal reason was ruled non-admissible but it existed, sir, and the main reason was because Feurgesson gave him carte blanche to kill and the British couldn't admit that in open court.
And, unlike Israel with incidents in Gaza with UK citizens, the British never paid up.
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