Educated at Yorebridge Grammar School, Askrigg, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Farndale was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in November 1948.
[2] In 1969 Farndale was appointed Commanding Officer of 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, which was deployed to Northern Ireland at the early stages of The Troubles.
[2] In 1973 he was appointed commander of the 7th Armoured Brigade in Germany before, in 1978, he returned to the UK to become Director of Operations at the Ministry of Defence in which role he had to organise the disarming of guerillas in order to facilitate the creation of the future nation of Zimbabwe.
[2] He was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2nd Armoured Division in Germany in 1980.
[3] Following his retirement at the end of December 1987, Farndale was a defence adviser to Short Brothers plc and to Deloitte Touche[3] and wrote four volumes of the History of the Royal Artillery.