"farewell" as a verb

Recently I've seen the word "farewell" used as a verb twice. One on a British website, and another on an Australian website. "They were farewelled".

To my Leftpondian ears, this sounds strange. Is this BrE or AuE usage, or a new form of the word? Has anyone seen it used in this way in the U.S.? I would say "they were given a fond farewell" or something to that effect.

Larry