He counted King Charles and Queen Camilla among his best friends and his daughter was Prince William‘s first love.
But when the life of renowned horseman and legendary hunting figure Captain Ian Farquhar was remembered at an 18th century church on the famous Badminton Estate in the Cotswolds last week, there was one notable absence.
The honourable Charlotte Townshend – described as ‘the richest woman in Dorset’ and the only person in Britain allowed to keep swans, other than the King, and the Queen before him – decided to to give the memorial service dedicated to the Old Etonian a miss, lest passions within his family were stirred.
For in the early 1990s, whilst in his mid-40s, the dashing Capt Farquhar abandoned his wife, Pammie-Jane, and their three daughters, Emma, Victoria and Rose, at the sumptuous farmhouse – called Happy Lands, ironically – they shared.
When the life of renowned horseman and legendary hunting figure Captain Ian Farquhar was remembered at an 18th century church last week, there was one notable absence
The Captain counted King Charles and Queen Camilla among his best friends
Pictured is Captain Farquhar’s former wife Pammie-Jane at his funeral
Queen Camilla leaving the service for Captain Farquhar at St Michael and All Angels Church
Pictured, Charlotte Townshend, who is herself a keen hunter
It just a stone’s throw from royal neighbour Charles’ Highgrove home and he shacked up with Ms Townshend, then Charlotte Monckton, at the Grade 1 listed mansion that has been in her family for more than 500 years near Weymouth.
The pair had met over the ‘stirrup cups’ while hunting and became lovers.
Friends say he agonised over his decision to leave Pammie-Jane, who he had married 1972, and their children, and regularly discussed his romantic quandary with his neighbour the Prince of Wales at a local pub.
One who knew the captain said: ‘He and Charles would nip out to their local, the Hare and Hounds in Westonbirt, and chat about the respective love lives. At the time, Charles was heavily involved with Camilla and Ian was head-over-heels in love with Charlotte. They had plenty to talk about, that’s for sure.’
By the end of 1992, Pammie-Jane had divorced Cat Farquhar, but to everyone’s astonishment, when his affair with Ms Townshend ended a year later, she agreed to a reconciliation with her ex-husband.
Although the pair did not remarry, they remained together at Happy Lands until a few years ago, when they parted for the last time. They did however remain close friends until his death.
Ms Townshend, already a divorcee when she fell for Caps Farquhar, went on to marry land agent James Townshend in 1995.
The captain’s affair coincided with the then-Prince of Wales’ own affair with Queen Camilla, then plain Camilla Parker Bowles. Both Camilla and her ex-husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, attended the memorial at St Michael and All Angels’ Church on Thursday last week.
Pictured, Captain Ian Farquhar leads the hounds at Badminton Estate in 2006
Pictured, Andrew Parker Bowles leaving the service for Captain Ian Farquhar
Camilla, officially representing the King, fought back tears as Capt Farquhar’s daughter, Rose, whom Prince William dated in 2000, sang Danny Boy to open the emotional 90-minute church service.
The captain, who also served as equerry to the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1971, may have lived an extraordinary life, but, it seems, the collapse of his marriage and his failed relationship with Ms Townshend took their toll on him in his later years.
Those who knew Capt Farquhar in Gloucestershire, where he was a well-known figure as Master of the local Beaufort Hunt for 34 years, say he fought a lengthy battle with alcoholism in the second half of his life.
They told of an ultimately ‘sad and lonely figure’ who would park up outside the Co-op store in Tetbury, about a mile from Highgrove, most evenings and buy a bottle of whisky.
He would then return to his car, open the top and drink from the neck of the bottle before driving home.
‘He was sozzled when he came into the Co-op and he couldn’t wait to get home before he started on his next bottle,’ said one Tetbury local who knew the revered huntsman.
He added: ‘I think he had a broken heart. Well, twice-broken, in fact. He was deeply in love with Charlotte and he loved his wife too.
‘But he always said Charlotte was the love of his life and when they broke up, he was never the same man again. It kind of broke him.
Pictured, Hunt Master Captain Ian Farquhar leaving the High Court in London
Badminton House at the 2018 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials
‘His wife was incredibly loyal and forgiving, but in the end she to left him. He’d already started drinking very heavily by then and she couldn’t cope with him when he was drunk, which became most of the time.’
He spent the last years of his life living alone and in the grip of alcoholism 15 miles away in Chippenham in neighbouring Wiltshire, where he was found dead by his carer in his new home on the afternoon of March 6 this year, aged 78. The carer said he was struggling to breathe when she found him.
An inquest at Salisbury two weeks later was told a post-mortem examination had showed Capt Farquhar died from postural asphyxia, which can be caused by the deceased being positioned in a way that prevents them from breathing properly.
People may die from this accidentally, when the mouth and nose are blocked, or where the chest becomes unable to fully expand.
Wiltshire Police confirmed there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’ relating to his death.
At his memorial service earlier this month, the 400-seat church in the grounds of the Badminton Estate, owned by the Duke of Beaufort, was filled so quickly that more than 100 other mourners had to have the occasion live-streamed into a nearby servants’ refectory.
If Ms Townshend’s name was mentioned at the service, it was uttered silently and cautiously, especially within the earshot of his former wife, Pammie-Jane, who wore an electric blue skirt and matching jacket emblazoned with bright gold buttons for the occasion.
One mourner said: ‘I wasn’t at all surprised to see that Charlotte had chosen to stay away.
‘Her affair with Ian left Pammie-Jane and their children utterly devastated. ‘Even though the relationship ultimately failed, none of them ever forgave her.
‘If she’d turned up, it would have been very tense. A good many of us were very relieved to discover she’d handled it with tact.’
Friends say Captain Farquhar discussed his romantic quandary with his neighbour and friend King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, at their local, the Hare and Hounds pub and hotel in Westonbirt
Pictured, the gardens at Highgrove House in 2013 where King Charles once lived with Queen Camilla
Ms Townshend, herself a keen huntswoman, would have know many of those gathered on the country estate to remember her former lover.
Her personal fortune, estimated at more than £500m, earns her a high placing on the Sunday Times Rich List and her wealth was so vast she sat above the late Queen Elizabeth ll.
She owns much of London’s prestigious Holland Park – around 40 acres – whose famous residents include David and Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John, David Cameron, Ed Sheeran, Sir Richard Branson, Robbie Williams, and Bryan Ferry,
But spending much of her time in Dorset, where she is joint master of the Cattistock Hunt.
Her support for the fox-hunting lobby was such that in 1999 she wrote to Baroness Young, chairperson of English Nature, cancelling an agreement to turn the beach into a nature reserve because of what she described as Tony , Blair’s Labour government’s ‘astonishing and highly misguided proposal to ban hunting on English soil’.
In Dorset, she owns a 15,000-acre estate which includes the picturesque Abbotsburry Swannery, bought by her ancestors from Henry VIII in 1543, and a large part of Chesil Beach.
Swans mean so much to her that when her only son was born, she followed an ancient tradition and laid the infant down in a swan’s nest. She is the only person in Britain other than the Monarch entitled to own swans.
A racehorse owner, she regularly rides her horses to see the swans at dawn.
Despite her wealth, Ms Townshend, 69, who, like the Queen claimed, never carries money, has said in the past: ‘I don’t feel rich.’
She inherited her fortune from her father, the 9th Viscount Galway, who died in 1971, and her mother, Lady Teresa, daughter of the 7th Earl of Ilchester, who died in 1990. Both her brothers died in accidents.
As well as the 15,000 acres of land surrounding her Dorset home, Melbury, she owns 3,000 acres in Nottinghamshire and a property empire in Yorkshire.
Ms Townshend, who serves the Crown as Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, was first married to art dealer Guy Morrison. They had a son, Simon, now 22, but divorced after three years.