Nigel Farman was born in Long Ashton in Somerset on 28 April 1928, the younger of the two sons of Lieutenant Commander Sigmond Watkins Farman, Royal Navy and Olga Jenine Farman (née Bullen) of Parsonage House, Easton-in-Gordano, Bristol. He was baptised in St Paul’s Church, Clifton, Bristol.

He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet at the Britannia, Royal Naval College in January 1942. In September 1945 he was reported to be serving/training in the Cadet Training Cruiser HMS FROBISHER. He was promoted to Midshipman on 1 May 1946 and appointed to the Cruiser HMS NIGERIA, serving in the South Atlantic, on the same date.

Nigel Farman arrived in Southampton in SS CARNAVON CASTLE on 8 July 1947 having embarked at Cape Town, South Africa, giving a destination address of Greet Hill, Powntley Copse, near Alton in Hampshire. He was promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant on 1 September 1947 and appointed to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, followed by Portsmouth for his Lieutenant’s Courses.

It is understood that he served briefly in HMS ARTEMIS in 1948 before being appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for the Submarine Course’. Sub Lieutenant Nigel Farman was then appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for Submarine HMS TRUCULENT as Third Hand – refitting at Chatham Dockyard’ in October 1949.  On 12 January 1950 TRUCULENT was returning to harbour after post refit trials when she was in collision with M/V DIVINA in the Thames estuary.  Following the collision the submarine sank.  Nigel Farman was lost in the accident. It is not known whether he was one of the ten men found onboard when the submarine was raised or one of the many who were swept away by the tide after conducting a successful escape, and died in the freezing waters.

Nigel Farman’s elder brother, Sub Lieutenant Laurence Farman, had been killed in an air raid on HMS VERNON, Portsmouth, on 11 March 1941.