Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Farwell, George
FARWELL, Sir GEORGE (1845–1915), judge, was born at Codsall, Staffordshire, 22 December 1845, the second son of Frederick Cooper Farwell, of Tettenhall, Staffordshire, agent of the Duke of Cleveland, by his wife, Louisa Whitbread, daughter of Admiral Sir Frederick Michell, K.C.B. Farwell was educated at Rugby School under Dr. Temple and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class in classical moderations and a second class in literae humaniores (1868). He was called to the bar by Lincoln’s Inn in November 1871 and, having decided to practise on the equity side, he read as a pupil in the chambers of Sir John Wickens, the vice-chancellor [q.v.]. He then assisted Horace Davey (afterwards Lord Davey, q.v.) as ‘devil’. In 1874 Farwell published A Concise Treatise on the Law of Powers, which was quickly recognized among practitioners as the standard work on this subject and added considerably to his practice. A third edition, revised by the author’s son, was published in 1916.
Farwell’s rise was steady, and in 1891 he became a Q.C., attaching himself to the court of Mr. (afterwards Lord) Justice Chitty. On Chitty’s promotion to the Court of Appeal Farwell migrated to the court of Mr. (afterwards Lord) Justice Romer. He was an able and pleasing advocate, though not combative, and speedily acquired a substantial practice as a ‘silk’. In October 1899 Farwell was appointed an additional judge of the Chancery division and was knighted. As a judge he displayed marked independence of mind as well as learning and ability. In September 1900, when Farwell was sitting as vacation judge, it fell to him to decide, in the well-known case of Taff Vale Railway Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, whether an action would lie against a trade union in its registered name in respect of a wrongful act committed by its agents. Farwell answered this question in the affirmative. His judgment was reversed by the Court of Appeal but restored and much praised by the House of Lords. Its practical effect, however, was largely destroyed by the passing of the Trades Disputes Act in 1906.
In 1905 Farwell was appointed chairman of a royal commission to inquire into the purchase of supplies for the army in South Africa and the disposal of surplus army stores after the conclusion of the Boer War. Farwell conducted this laborious inquiry with great ability and fairness. The commission reported in 1906 and, while acquitting of corruption the principal officers concerned, exposed grave faults of administration resulting in ‘a preventable loss to the home taxpayer of between three-quarters of a million and one and a quarter millions sterling’.
In 1906, on the resignation of Lord Justice Stirling, Farwell was appointed a lord justice of the Court of Appeal and was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1913 he resigned for reasons of health, but he recovered sufficiently in retirement: to sit occasionally on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In 1915, however, his health failed again, and he died 30 September 1915 at his country house at Timberscombe, Somerset.
Farwell was elected a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 1895. In 1908 he received the degree of LL.D., honoris causa, from the university of Edinburgh and in 1912 he was elected an honorary fellow of Balliol College.
Farwell married in 1873 Mary Erskine, daughter of Vice-Chancellor Sir John Wickens, and had two sons and four daughters.
[The Times, 2 October 1915; Law Journal, 9 October 1915; Annual Register, 1905-1906; Report of War Stores Commission, 1906; private information.]