Frederick St. Clair Farran was born to British parents in Bombay [now Mumbai], India on 5 March 1876. By the late 1880s he had moved to England. He subsequently trained as a civil engineer and was elected an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (AMICE). He also practised as an architect, sometimes collaborating with his younger brother, Charles Ernest Farran (1889-1973), who was also an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (AMICE). Together they submitted a design for a bungalow in the Daily Mail Architects Competition for Labour-Saving Bungalows in 1922.
His address was given as, Gaddesden Row, Great Gaddesden.Hertfoirdshire in 1891; Brackendale House, Camberley, Surrey in 1922; and Oberis, Fleet Hill, Finehampstead, Berkshire in 1921 and 1932. He died in Berkshire on 3 January 1934