Farquhar was one of three wrestling representatives for the Scottish team[2] at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada, where he participated in the middleweight 82kg event.[3]
At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, he participated in the men's freestyle middleweight category.[4] A plumber by trade, he was informed that he had been selected for the Olympics while working on an Edinburgh rooftop.[5]
In 1957 he defeated Jim Wilson of Dunfermline to win the Scottish light-heavyweight title[6] and was subsequently selected by Scotland, with George McKenzie and weightlifter Phil Caira for the Festival of Youth in Moscow,[7] a trip that saw the trio detained in Poland following visa issues.[8]
The following year he was selected for the 1958 Scottish team for the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, in the middleweight class again[9] and won a silver medal.[10]
In 1962 Farquhar was selected for the Scottish Commonwealth's team for the third time,[11] for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, in the welterweight class.[12] He finished in fourth place behind the gold medal winner Muhammad Bashir of Pakistan.[13][14]
Farquhar was a five-times winner of the British Wrestling Championships in 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1963.[15]
