On 23 August 1914 his troop was fighting a rear-guard action near Harmignies; the troop was nearly surrounded, and was held up by a wire fence. Corporal Garforth cut this wire fence, in spite of the fact that the Germans had turned their machine-gun fire on to the fence, with the express purpose of preventing it being cut. This action allowed the troop to make a gallop to safety.

Again on 6 September 1914, near Danmartin Corporal Garforth was out on patrol. The patrol came under heavy fire and was forced to retire. Sergeant Scatterfield's horse was shot, and the sergeant was lying under his horse. Garforth went forward under heavy fire and pulled the Sergeant from under his horse, and took him to a place of safety.

On the following day, 7 September 1914, when on patrol, Sergeant Lewis had his horse shot and was on foot under machine-gun fire. Garforth drew the fire of the machine-guns on to himself and engaged the machine-guns with his rifle fire, thus enabling the Sergeant to get away under cover.