William’s songbird sweetheart to marry

SHE captivated a young Prince William, with whom she enjoyed a carefree romance in the months after he left Eton.

Since then, Rose Farquhar (right) has melted hearts at numerous weddings, singing everything from Ave Maria to Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling In Love, as well as making it on to TV talent contest The Voice.

Now, though, is the time for her most exultant aria — in celebration of her engagement to George Gemmell, who, her father, Captain Ian Farquhar, tells me, ‘ could not be a more charming son-in-law for the future’.

Adds Farquhar, for 34 years a renowned Master of the Beaufort Hunt: ‘ The Gemmells have been friends of ours for years. We’re absolutely delighted.’

George (inset), currently completing veterinary studies, is the stepson of Barbadian construction tycoon Sir Charles ‘Cow’ Williams, who died last year. It’s a link which might suggest a Caribbean wedding — but not, seemingly, for George and Rose, 42, who is head of ‘special projects’ for the Duchess of Rutland at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire.

The wedding, says Captain Farquhar, will be close to Christmas and — ‘hopefully’ — at the family home in Gloucestershire.

But will William be in attendance? He and Rose were once allegedly caught ‘canoodling’ by a farmer who stumbled across them in his Cotswolds field — which, some claim, is why he was absent from his friend Charlie

van Straubenzee’s wedding four years ago . . . at which Rose sang as the register was signed.