Rich family history of shot man

Fred Picton-Turbervill as a young man

A father-of-six who was shot and killed by robbers at his South African home in front of his wife and four youngest children had a rich Welsh heritage.

Fred Picton-Turbervill's father Richard and stepmother Ann still live in Ewenny Priory near Bridgend, which has been in the family since the mid-16th Century.

Ancestors of note include General Sir Thomas Picton, the most senior officer to die in the Battle of Waterloo.

Mr Picton-Turbervill died in hospital an hour after the attack on Saturday.

He is survived by six children, two from a previous marriage and four younger children aged between 10 and three from his second marriage to his South African-born wife Ursula.

Ancestor Sir Thomas Picton was killed at Waterloo in 1815

They had been at their four-bedroom home in Pretoria, which is surrounded by two metre high walls and electric fencing, when the two robbers struck.

It is thought he was shot in the eye in front of two of the children before the robbers made off with a laptop, four mobile phones and around 1000 rand (£74) in cash.

His family, including Mr Picton-Turbervill's 21-year-old son Jamie, have flown out to South Africa for his funeral on Thursday.

Mrs Picton-Tubervill said they planned to scatter his ashes at the 12th Century Ewenny priory, which has been the centre of the family's estate for more than 500 years.

They have been such an upstanding family and everyone in the village must be feeling really bad about it Bethan Budd, family friend

She also said she may move back to south Wales for the safety of their children.

Ewenny resident and family friend Bethan Budd said villagers were shocked and saddened by Mr Picton-Turbervill's death because he and his family were well-respected locally.

"They have been such an upstanding family and everyone in the village must be feeling really bad about it," she said.

"You can only pray for the family. Freddie was the youngest of the boys and his wife and children must be going through a great deal at the moment."

Mr and Mrs Picton-Tubervill met at a barbecue hosted by his brother Simon 13 years ago and married less than a month later.

They settled in Burnley, Lancashire and ran a furniture business called D'Urberville Designs there for eight years. Three of their children were also born in this time.

The Picton-Turbervills then emigrated to Pretoria in 2003 in search of a better quality of life and set up a new furniture business called Creative.

Paying tribute to her husband, Mrs Picton-Turbervill described him as a "wonderful, gregarious man" and a great father.

The priory has been in the family for around 500 years

"He wasn't the type to come home, sit on the settee and watch TV - he'd play with the kids, cook or do something useful," she said.

"He was fit and very strong and I love him very much and am going to miss him terribly."

The Benedictine priory of Ewenny has been a family seat since the middle of the 16th Century when it was dissolved by King Henry VIII and leased to Sir Edward Carne. The family name changed through the centuries through marriage.

Mr Picton-Tubervill's ancestors include Sir Thomas Picton from Pembrokeshire who married into the family but who fought and died in the Battle of Waterloo.

But although remembered for his military prowess, Sir Thomas also gained notoriety for overseeing the brutal torture of slaves when he was governor of Trinidad.

Another ancestor, Colonel John Picton Turbervill was Sheriff of Glamorgan in the later 19th Century.

A more recent member of the family was the late Labour MP, women's campaigner and author Edith Picton-Turbervill, who was elected in 1929 and represented a region of Shropshire for two years.

Mr Picton-Tubervill's father Richard was chairman of the bench at Bridgend Magistrates' Court from 1982 to 1986.