Charles Farr (civil servant)

Farr was educated at Monkton Combe School, then an all-boys private boarding school in Somerset. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he completed a DPhil in the philosophy of aesthetics. ==Career==

Farr worked for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in Afghanistan in the 1980s, in southern Africa and the Middle East. The report provoked protests from various groups which had been identified in the Quilliam briefing as sympathetic or supportive of Islamist extremism, and was described as "McCarthyite" by Inayat Bunglawala, chairman of Muslims4Uk and Fatima Khan, vice-chair of the Muslim Safety Forum. Bunglawala added: "In effect, Quilliam – a body funded very generously by the government through Prevent – are attempting to set themselves up as arbiters of who is and is not an acceptable Muslim." This was characterised in the media as an explanation of how the security services can legally monitor "Facebook, Google and Twitter" usage by UK citizens. In June 2014, there was a very public argument between the Home Office and Department for Education about alleged extremism in Birmingham schools. The Prime Minister David Cameron intervened and forced Education Secretary Michael Gove to apologise to Farr for briefings critical of him which appeared on the front page of The Times. On 23 November 2015, Farr was announced as the next Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The JIC is part of the Cabinet Office. ==Personality==

In a profile of Farr, The Guardian newspaper said that: The director of national security and resilience at the Royal United Services Institute, Charlie Edwards, said that Farr is "...not just an effective operator in the field, he is one of the most committed civil servants you will come across... Yes, he is robust, but first and foremost he is fair and most importantly he gets the job done." Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil liberties advocacy organisation Liberty, described Farr as "...the only person ever to shout at me in the Home Office. I prefer awesome power to be wielded by humbler hands and officials to be both civil and servants." ==Honours==

In the 2003 New Year Honours, Farr was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his service as a First Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In the 2010 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in recognition of his service as a Counsellor in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Farr received a Knighthood shortly before his death from cancer, aged 59. ==References==