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EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Andrew Parker Bowles pays tribute after King Charles's close friend Captain Ian Farquhar, father of Prince William's first girlfriend, dies at the monarch's Highgrove estate

EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Parker Bowles has paid tribute to longstanding friend of King Charles, Ian Farquhar, who has died. He lived on the King's Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire.

But 'The Captain', as Old Etonian Farquhar was known in perhaps slightly playful tribute to his service as a cavalry officer in the Queen's Own Hussars, will also be remembered for his zest for life, his immense charm and his talent for occasional misadventure. 'He used to go and have dinner with the King and drive home across the fields,' an admirer tells me, adding that, sometimes, the homeward journey didn't go as smoothly as Farquhar expected, causing him to abandon his car when it became hopelessly bogged down, leaving it to be retrieved by tractor. The late Betty Boothroyd, much-loved Speaker of the House of Commons, long campaigned to get a 'K' for David Nott, the church-going, London-based Welsh surgeon who organises emergency medical care in disaster zones.

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