King Charles’ longtime friend Ian Farquhar was found dead at home by his carer after struggling to breathe, an inquest heard.

The renowned huntsman, 78, was discovered at 1.10 pm on March 6 after the alarm was raised.

At the time, he was described as living on the monarch’s Highgrove Estate. The inquest heard he lived near Chippenham, in Wiltshire.

He was also the Queen Mother’s equerry and even served in the Queen’s Own Hussars, a cavalry regiment of the British Army.

Yesterday Wiltshire Police said: ‘There are no suspicious circumstances.’

An inquest at Salisbury, Wiltshire, was told a post mortem examination had showed Ian Walter Farquhar died from postural asphyxia.

This is when the way the person is positioned prevents them from breathing properly.

People may die from this accidentally, when the mouth and nose are blocked, or where the chest may be unable to fully expand.

Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, first husband and friend of Camilla, told the Mail’s Richard Eden that the situation was ‘very sad’ and that he had been in poor health for the past few months.

He described his friend as ‘wild as a hawk in his youth, but always great fun’. Parker Bowles added that ‘The Captain’, as Farquhar was known, will be ‘judged by history as one of the great Masters of Hounds’.

Farquhar and Charles became intertwined further when Prince William briefly dated Rose Farquhar in 2000 after he finished his A-levels at Eton.

The pair met at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire and she was described as the Prince of Wales’s ‘first love’ at the time.

William and Rose would go on romantic picnics in the Gloucestershire countryside together before he met Kate at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

They are still friends to this day, as the Prince attended her wedding to George Gemmell in 2022.

Farquhar and Pammie-Jane separated and as time went on, they managed to rekindle their friendship, but they continued to live separately.

Mr Farquhar was also Master of the Beaufort Hunt for 34 years. It is the West Country’s oldest and largest fox hunt.

Fox hunting was made illegal in 2004, but the Hunting Act allows groups to trail hunt using the scent of animals.

In an Instagram post, the page shared a video containing multiple images of Ian throughout his life and wrote: ‘It is with broken hearts we send our love and condolences to the family and friends of our own Captain Ian Farquhar, who so brilliantly piloted us for 34 years and passed away peacefully this week.

”Captain’ as he was known by many was loved and cherished by the entire hunting community, as someone who was supportive, kind and always there with excellent forward thinking advice for anyone who asked him.

‘He had a wicked sense of humour and anyone who was lucky enough to be in his company and listen to tales of his extremely varied and adventurous life both in the army and the hunting world will hold onto those memories forever.’

The post said that Mr Farquhar’s passions in life were his ‘hounds, his family and dogs’ and that he was a ‘true countryman and gent’.

The inquest was adjourned to a date to be fixed.