[3]: 115 During the Boer War he raised two regiments of South African Horse, and on 1 December 1900 was appointed Major in the Kaffrarian Rifles.

Farrar was an ardent supporter of the scheme to solve the labour problems of the mines by importing poorly paid Chinese workers on three-year contracts.

[8] Despite strong opposition, the plan was implemented in 1904 and over 60,000 Chinese were brought into the country over a period of three years, resulting in even further ethnic tensions on the Reef.

[3]: 114 With the outbreak of World War I he was visiting England and about to join the staff of General Sir Hubert Hamilton in Belgium, but instead was ordered to German South West Africa as Assistant Q.M-General to Brigadier-General Duncan McKenzie's force with the rank of Colonel.

On 19 May 1915 while returning from a tour of inspection, his motor trolley collided with a construction train at Kuibis, near Gibeon, and he succumbed to his injuries the following day.