First Boer War Victoria Cross Recipient. He was gazetted for the award on May 17, 1881 for his actions as a lance corporal in the British Army Hospital Corps on February 27, 1881 at the Battle of Majuba near Volksust, South Africa during the First Boer War. Born in Clerkenwell, London, England, he received his education at King's Cross with the idea of apprenticing in the building trade, but at the age of 13 he joined the Mercantile Marine and served aboard British and American ships. After surviving a shipwreck off the Isle of Wight and a typhoon near Hong Kong, he returned home in 1878 and became ill with smallpox. When he recovered, he became a night porter at a hospital to care for demented patients and became interested in the medical field, and joined the British Army Hospital Corps in February 1879. Following his training, he departed with his unit to South Africa where he was engaged as a medical attendant at the Battle of Ulundi during the Anglo-Zulu War (January to July 1879). In 1880 he was working at a field hospital when the First Boer War erupted (December 1880 to March 1881) and saw action at the Battle of Ulundi, during which he won the Victoria Cross for gallantry. Because of the wounds he received, he was discharged from the British Army and returned to England, joining the Corps of Commissionaires and later becoming a house painter. He died in Northwood, Middlesex, England at the age of 76. His Victoria Cross citation reads: "For conspicuous bravery during the engagement with the Boers at the Majuba Mountain, on the 27th February, 1881, when he showed a spirit of self-abnegation and an example of cool courage which cannot be too highly commended. While the Boers closed with the British troops near the wells, Corporal Farmer held a white flag over the wounded, and when the arm holding the flag was shot through, he called out that he had "another." He then raised the flag with the other arm, and continued to do so until that also was pierced with a bullet." In addition to the Victoria Cross, he received the South Africa Medal (1880, with 1879 clasp). His Victoria Cross and other medals are on display at the Army Medical Services Museum in Aldershot, Hampshire, England.