Anthony Farrar-Hockley was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, on 8 April 1924, the son of Arthur Farrar-Hockley, a journalist, and Agnes Beatrice (née Griffin). He was educated at Exeter School, and at the age of 15 he ran away at the start of the Second World War and enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment, a line infantry regiment of the British Army. The fact that he was underage was soon discovered and he was discharged and had to wait to be re-enlisted in 1941. He was promoted to sergeant while still aged 17 and only 18 when he was commissioned into the Wiltshire Regiment, before transferring to the Parachute Regiment in November 1942. He fought with the 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion, part of the 2nd Parachute Brigade, in Italy and Southern France. Later he won the Military Cross (MC) in 1944 while fighting the communist rebellion in Athens during the Greek Civil War.