Johannesburg: A British historian who spent almost 20 years as a tour guide specialising in the Zulu war has died after a savage beating by armed robbers at his home in South Africa.

Robert Gerrard trained under David Rattray, the most celebrated historical storyteller in the region and a close friend of the Prince of Wales.

Gerrard became the resident guide at Isandlwana Lodge in KawZulu-Natal, with a home overlooking the hillside where one of the most famous battles took place. Rattray himself was gunned down in his home by armed intruders in 2007.

Gerrard, a former Army officer and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was tortured and left unable to walk by raiders at his cottage. He died last Thursday following complications from injuries including brain damage, a shattered pelvis and severe burns, his family said yesterday. “He was an incredibly fit and determined man until this,” said his sister, Sally Gerrard Fox. “He would be out striding the mountainside on tours every day. But he just wasn’t getting better, he was forcing himself to walk again but it was clear that the attack sounded the end of his career.”

Gerrard was attacked on the evening of February 25 this year on returning home after dinner with guests at the lodge. “As he unlocked the door he saw one guy and punched him on the nose but didn’t realise that there was another one behind him with a gun,” Fox said.

“They beat the living hell out of him, smashed his head into the floor, tied him up, poured boiling water over him, fractured his pelvis in seven places. “Afterwards, he was shattered not only that this had happened but the brutality behind what happened, the lack of clear reason for it.”

The thieves took two handguns and two rifles, credit cards and a signet ring they broke his finger to wrench off.

Gerrard, 74, a divorcee with two sons in Britain, had long-standing family ties to South Africa and the military. His great grandfather, Sir John Robinson, was the first prime minister of Natal and his father was the commanding officer of The Gordon Highlanders, a regiment that had fought in the Boer War. He went to school at Ampleforth then served in Kenya, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Borneo before moving to South Africa to work as a commodity broker. Working with Rattray at Rorke’s Drift was “where I started to live my passion,” he once said. At Isandlwana Lodge, he became legendary among visitors including Jimmy Carter, the former US president. He had, one visitor wrote, “one of those voices that you never got tired of hearing”.

Fox said her brother had been left profoundly depressed by the attack. “For the first time in my life, I could see that he was almost scared,” she said. “I have never seen him scared of anything.” A memorial service will be held overlooking the battlefield on October 29. Police said they were investigating but no arrests had been made.