The Duchess of Kent, who has died at the age of 92, carried out her royal duties with the minimum of fuss.
She was best known to most of the public as the elegant woman who presented the trophies at Wimbledon each year, once famously having to comfort a distraught losing finalist.
She became the first member of the Royal Family to convert to Catholicism since the Act of Settlement in 1701 – but that was not, perhaps, her most surprising decision.
Recognising that her twin passions were music and children, she quietly withdrew from royal life and took a job as a music teacher at a primary school in Kingston upon Hull.
She even stopped using the title Her Royal Highness. In the staff room, she was simply “Kath”, and to the children “Mrs Kent”.
Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley was born in Yorkshire in 1933. Home was Hovingham Hall, a grand manor house that had been in the family for centuries.
She was not royal, but the Worsleys were wealthy. Her grandfather, John Brunner, had founded the paint and chemical company that evolved into ICI.
A lonely childhood
With her brothers sent away to boarding school, Katharine’s childhood was a lonely one. During World War Two, her mother and elderly governess were frequently her only companions.
She took refuge in the hills and moorlands of Yorkshire; the photographer Cecil Beaton, a regular visitor, described her as “the perfect outdoor girl”.
At the age of 10, she was allowed to go to school – first St Margaret’s in York and, later, Runton Hill in Norfolk.
Runton Hill was a bleak establishment, but Katharine was introduced to music, her lifelong passion. She learned to play the piano and violin, and – gifted with a beautiful voice – took singing lessons.
On leaving, she failed to gain a place at the Royal Academy of Music and instead went to Miss Hubler’s Finishing School in Oxford.
Debutante
Despite her lack of qualifications, her parents found her employment at an exclusive kindergarten – but their real focus remained on finding her a husband.
As a beautiful, wealthy debutante, Katharine was introduced to many of the most eligible young men of the 1950s – and she met Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a grandson of George V.
At the time of his birth, Prince Edward had been sixth in line to the throne – close enough to make it legally necessary for the home secretary to attend the birth, to verify any future claim to the monarchy.
Prince Edward was fresh out of Sandhurst and serving as an army officer at Catterick, not far from her family home – but his mother, Princess Marina, was said to have disapproved of their relationship.
She may have been rich, but Katharine was still a commoner. The duke was sent to Germany to cool his ardour, but the imposed distance failed to quench the flame.
Katharine and a friend went on a Greyhound bus trip to Mexico. The journey took several months, but on reaching their final destination, she found a bunch of flowers waiting for her.
The card that came with it said “E”. The couple announced their engagement in March 1961, and married a month later.
Fashion icon
To add insult to family injury, they decided not to use Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral for the ceremony. Instead, friends and family were invited to York Minster – a venue that had last hosted a royal marriage in 1328.
The newspapers couldn’t get enough of the newest member of the Royal Family, and Katharine did not disappoint.
On the eve of the wedding, she was photographed wearing the most fashionable garment of the 1960s: the miniskirt.
And the wedding itself was a glittering affair, with Noel Coward and Douglas Fairbanks Jr adding Hollywood sparkle and Queen Elizabeth II leading a procession of the royal families of Europe.
At the reception, Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece found themselves seated next to each other. One slow foxtrot later, they were on course to become King and Queen of Spain.
Motherhood
A year later, Katharine’s first child – George, Earl of St Andrews – was born. Almost immediately, the couple travelled to Uganda to represent the British Crown at the country’s independence celebrations.
As an army wife, she was expected to follow her husband on assignment to Hong Kong and Germany.
Two more children swiftly followed: Lady Helen and Lord Nicholas Windsor – but, in 1975, Katharine caught German measles during her fourth pregnancy.
Doctors advised her to have an abortion because the disease can often damage the unborn child. After consulting religious authorities, Katharine terminated the pregnancy.
Two years later, a fifth pregnancy went to term, but baby Patrick was stillborn. “It had the most devastating effect on me,” she later said.
“I suffered from acute depression for a while. I think it would be a fairly rare individual who didn’t cave in under those circumstances.”
Nervous exhaustion
In 1976, Prince Edward retired from the Army, took on more royal duties and became vice-chairman of the British Overseas Trade Board.
The couple’s new role demanded plenty of travel, and the duchess began to feel the strain. The deaths of her parents made matters worse.
Two years later, she was admitted to hospital suffering from “nervous exhaustion” but gradually returned to public life – where she took a close interest in organisations that helped the young and the elderly.
Her most famous role was to present the trophies at Wimbledon, where – it was reported – she was instrumental in ending the tradition of players bowing and curtsying when passing the royal box.
In 1993, Katharine showed that royalty and compassion could happily co-exist when Jana Novotná lost to Steffi Graf in the women’s final.
The 25-year-old Czech player had been four games to one ahead in the final set, and burst into tears. The duchess leaned forward and gave her a royal shoulder to cry on.
“I just remember from the far side of the net, her face crumpled,” the duchess later recalled. “It’s the natural thing, isn’t it? That’s what you do when people are crying.”
Catholicism
For years, Katharine struggled with her mental and physical health.
It was reported that she suffered from a debilitating infection known as the Epstein Barr virus, and from the chronic fatigue syndrome, ME. It was also thought that she had coeliac disease, which made her feel exhausted.
She sought comfort in religion. In January 1994, Katharine was received into the Roman Catholic Church – the first royal to do so since 1685.
Her decision was supported by her husband’s cousin, Queen Elizabeth – who decided that Prince Edward’s position in the line of succession would remain unaltered.
Katharine continued to work with the UN children’s charity Unicef, and to help victims of landmines in Cambodia – but she drifted further and further away from the Royal Family.
She even announced that she would no longer use the title Her Royal Highness, and she and her husband began to lead separate lives.
Call me ‘Katharine Kent’
She took to introducing herself simply as Katharine Kent.
“I don’t like being a public figure and I say that very humbly,” she admitted. “It’s my nature, the way I was born. I like to do things quietly behind the scenes. I’m a very shy person.”
She became a music teacher at Wansbeck Primary School in Kingston upon Hull, which has a progressive programme for the inclusion of children with learning difficulties. Only the headteacher knew who she really was.
“Primary school children are like little sponges,” Katharine said. “They are very eager to learn, so teaching them is very satisfying.”
In 2004, Katharine founded the charity Future Talent to give children from deprived backgrounds the opportunity to take up music.
In partnership with primary schools, children are given instruments and encouraged to develop their musical ability.
And she didn’t just teach them classical music.
A passion for rap
In an interview with the Guardian, the duchess revealed a passion for Eminem and Ice Cube – although admitted the same could not be said of Kanye West or Stormzy.
“If you see someone on the M40 looking particularly dotty,” she told a surprised reporter, “it’s me trying to rap in the car going home.”
Katherine, Duchess of Kent, rarely emerged from her self-imposed exile, although she did attend Prince Harry’s wedding in 2018.
She was, at Queen Elizabeth’s invitation, one of the small group of mourners invited to the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh – but was too frail to attend the coronation of King Charles III in 2023.
She will be remembered for that hug with Novotná, her dignity and quiet compassion, and as a reluctant royal, who eventually decided that her true path lay in teaching children to love music.
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