HRH The Duchess of Kent, GCVO, one of the most unassuming and one of the most popular members of the royal family, died 4 September, 2025, at her home in Kensington Palace. She was 92.
Her Royal Highness, who retired from public life in the 1990s, was the wife for 64 years of HRH The Duke of Kent, a grandson of King George V, and a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Duchess held many honorary military appointments, including Honorary Colonel, Yorkshire Volunteers, Honorary Major-General, Controller Commandant, Women's Royal Army Corps, Colonel-in-Chief, of The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, of Adjutant General's Corps, Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, of Royal Dragoon Guards, Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, of Royal Logistic Corps. She was Chancellor of the University of Leeds from 1966 to 1999. The Duchess of Kent was appointed GCVO in June 1977, at the time of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee.
She stepped back from formal royal duties in the 1990s, but nevertheless remained a firm favourite with the public, with the emergence of details about her secret double life away from royal duties helping to further endear her to the public. She ceased to use the style and title of royal highness, assumed the name 'Katharine Kent' and became a school teacher in Yorkshire. She chose Wansbeck School in Hull, because she was Yorkshire-born and had many connections in the county.
She told the BBC some years ago: "My other passion is children - being able to share and pass on your love of music to children is the greatest privilege a teacher can have."
In an interview with the BBC, headteacher Ann Davies said: "Her enthusiasm with the children brings out the best in them and thanks to 'Mrs Kent' music is now a strength at the school. "She is an inspirational music teacher and the children love working with her. They say she never gets cross, she always looks for the positive." She added: "I believe that because they are so fond of her, they have done well in music."
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| My encounter with HRH (1976). |
As well as teaching in Hull, the Duchess also rented out a flat in London where she taught piano lessons.
Her musical interest stared when she was very young. As a schoolgirl, she was taught to play the piano, the violin and the organ, and narrowly missed out on a place at the Royal Academy of Music.
The Duchess was the wife of HRH Prince Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick, Duke of Kent, KG, GCMG, GCVO, ADC (born 9 October, 1935); ADC to HM Queen Elizabeth II 1966-2022; Grand Master of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1967; GCMG 1967; Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons of England since 1967; Maj General 1983; Knight of the Garter 1985; Field Marshal 1993. The Duke is a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II on his paternal side and a first cousin once removed of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on his maternal side.
The Duchess of Kent converted to Roman Catholicism in 1994; she was the first member of the royal family to convert publicly since the passing of the Act of Settlement 1701. The Duchess is strongly associated with the world of music and has performed as a member of several choirs.
She was born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley, 22 February, 1933, at Hovingham Hall, near York, the fourth child and only daughter of Sir William Arthington Worsley, 4th Baronet (1890-1973), Lord-lieutenant of North Riding, and his wife Joyce Morgan Brunner (1895–1979). Her mother was the only daughter of Sir John Brunner, 2nd Baronet, and granddaughter of Sir John Brunner, 1st Baronet, the founder of Brunner Mond, which later became ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries). She is a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, through his daughter Frances Cromwell, Lady Russell.
Katharine Worsley was christened at All Saints' Church, Hovingham, on 2 April 1933. Her godparents were her maternal uncle Sir Felix Brunner, 3rd Baronet, Major Sir Digby Lawson, 2nd Baronet, her paternal aunt Lady Colegate, and Margaret D'Arcy Fife, of Nunnington Hall, Yorkshire.
She was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York, and at Runton Hill School in North Norfolk, and at at Miss Hubler's Finishing School, 22 Merton Street, Oxford.
Katharine met the young Duke of Kent in 1957, at a fancy dress party in Yorkshire where young Prince Eddie was in Tudor garb. The duke was stationed at Catterick garrison near York, with his regiment, the Royal Scots Greys. As early as 1958, there were rumours in the press that the couple would be imminently announcing their engagement. But there was a problem: the Duke of Kent's mother, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, a Princess of Greece and Denmark, the daughter of a Romanov Grand Duchess, was worried that her son, who was then 21, was too young to marry, and she baulked at the very idea that her elder son wanted to marry a commoner. It took several years for Princess Marina to finally accept the marriage. The couple lived apart—he with his regiment in Germany, she in Canada—for a year. By March 1961, the couple’s engagement was officially announced to the public. Edward and Katharine were photographed with her parents and his mother and sister, with Katharine’s diamond and sapphire engagement ring sparkling in the sun.
The wedding took place at York Minster, 8 June, 1961. Dr Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury officiated at the ceremony, and the Royal Family were present, with many royals from Europe and Scandinavia in attendance. It was the first royal wedding in the Minster in 633 years. King Edward III, the duke's ancestor, married Philippa of Hainault there. The groom wore the full-dress uniform of his regiment, the Royal Scots Greys, while the bride’s dress, according to descriptions at the time, was a “gown of gossamer white silk gauze woven with a formal design in iridescent silvery thread”.
The ordinary residents of York queued for hours to see the processions to and from the Minster. The groom wore the full-dress uniform of his regiment, the Royal Scots Greys, while the bride’s dress, according to descriptions at the time, was a “gown of gossamer white silk gauze woven with a formal design in iridescent silvery thread”. The Kent diamond and pearl fringe tiara held the bride's veil.
Guests at the wedding included the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, as well as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III), Princess Anne, who was a bridesmaid. There were also royals from Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, and Norway in attendance. It was at this wedding that the future King Juan Carlos of Spain would meet his royal bride, Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, too. The wedding breakfast was held at Hovingham Hall, the bride's home.
In the early years of their marriage the Kents were afforded some normal life. Katharine led the life of an army officer's wife. Sir Noel Coward, a great friend of the family, encountered the couple when he visited Hong Kong in 1963: "Had an enchanting evening with Prince Eddie and Kate, who live in an ordinary officers' issue flatlet in the New Territories and are as merry as grigs and having a lovely time untrammelled by royal pomposity. They really are a sweet couple and it is a pleasure to see two people so entirely happy with each other. I also saw George (Earl of St Andrews), who is thirteen months and blond and pink and smiling."
The Duchess of Kent was the mother of three children. George Philip Nicholas, styled Earl of St Andrews (born 26 June, 1962), Lady Helen Marina Lucy Taylor (born 28 April, 1964), and Lord Nicholas Charles Edward Jonathan Windsor (born 25 July, 1970).
The Duchess had a spontaneous abortion in 1975 owing to rubella and gave birth to a stillborn son, Lord Patrick Windsor, 5 October, 1977.
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