JOHANNESBURG -- The personal envoy of the Prince of Wales was among 1,500 mourners who attended an emotional funeral service in South Africa yesterday for his friend, the renowned historian David Rattray.

The Prince compared his death to that of “my beloved great uncle, Lord Mountbatten”.

Mr Rattray, 48, an expert on the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war, was murdered by a gang who broke into his lodge in KwaZulu- Natal province at the weekend. He lived in Fugitives’ Drift, which overlooks Isandlwana, where Zulu fighters inflicted one of the most famous defeats in British army history.