Katharine, Duchess of Kent

Katharine
Duchess of Kent (more)
The Duchess at Trooping the Colour, June 2013
Born	(1933-02-22) 22 February 1933 Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire
Spouse	Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (m. 1961)
Issue	George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews Lady Helen Taylor Lord Nicholas Windsor
Full name Katharine Lucy Mary
House	Windsor (by marriage)
Father	Sir William Worsley, 4th Bt.
Mother	Joyce Morgan Brunner
Religion	Roman Catholicism (prev. Church of England)

Katharine, Duchess of Kent, GCVO (Katharine Lucy Mary; née Worsley; born 22 February 1933), is the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, who is a grandson of King George V and Queen Mary, and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Duchess of Kent gained attention for her conversion to Catholicism in 1994, the first senior Royal to convert publicly since the passing of the Act of Settlement 1701. The Duchess of Kent is strongly associated with the world of music, and has performed as a member of several choirs. She is also well known as the presenter of trophies at the annual Wimbledon lawn tennis championships — a role she inherited from her mother-in-law, Princess Marina, and has since relinquished. As a known football fan, she also has attended — and presented the trophy – at more FA Cup finals than any other member of the Royal Family.

She prefers to be known in her private life as "Katharine Kent", and has also expressed a preference for being known as "Katharine, Duchess of Kent". However, her formal title remains "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent".

Early life

Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley was born at Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire, and was the only daughter of Sir William Arthington Worsley, 4th Bt., and his wife, Joyce Morgan Brunner, 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. Worsley was christened at All Saints' Church, Hovingham on 2 April 1933. Her godparents were: Sir Felix Brunner, 3rd Baronet (her maternal uncle); Major Sir Digby Lawson, 2nd Baronet; Mrs Arthur Colegate (her paternal aunt); and Mrs Ronald Fife.

She was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York and at Runton Hill School in North Norfolk. At school she was introduced to music, and was taught to play the piano, organ and violin, which she still plays today. The Duchess has stated her admiration for the late cellist Jacqueline du Pré in the documentary by Christopher Nupen called 'Who is Jacqueline du Pré?' She later worked for some time in a children's home in York and worked at a nursery school in London. She failed to gain admission to the Royal Academy of Music but followed her brothers to Oxford, where they were at the University, to study at Miss Hubler's Finishing School, 22 Merton Street, devoting much of her time to music.

Marriage

On 8 June 1961, she married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the eldest son of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, at York Minster. Guests included actors Noël Coward and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as well as members of the British, Greek, Danish, Norwegian, Yugoslavian, Romanian and Spanish royal families. The bride's gown was designed by John Cavanagh, and she wore a diamond bandeau tiara lent by her mother-in-law. After her marriage she was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent.

Children

The Duke and Duchess of Kent have three children:

• George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews (born 26 June 1962);
• Lady Helen Taylor (born 28 April 1964);
• Lord Nicholas Windsor (born 25 July 1970).

The couple also had a stillborn child, Patrick, in 1977, a loss that caused the Duchess to fall into a state of severe depression, about which she has spoken publicly. "It had the most devastating effect on me," she told The Daily Telegraph in 1997. "I had no idea how devastating such a thing could be to any woman. It has made me extremely understanding of others who suffer a stillbirth."

Catholicism

The Duchess of Kent was received into the Catholic Church in 1994. This was a personal decision, and she received the approval of The Queen. As she explained in an interview on BBC, "I do love guidelines and the Catholic Church offers you guidelines. I have always wanted that in my life. I like to know what's expected of me. I like being told: You shall go to church on Sunday and if you don't you're in for it!" Basil Hume, then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and thus spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, warned the Church against triumphalism over the Duchess's conversion.

Although the Act of Settlement 1701 means a member of the Royal Family marrying a Catholic relinquishes their right of succession to the British throne, the Act does not include marriage to an Anglican who subsequently becomes a Catholic. Therefore, the Duke of Kent did not lose his place in the line of succession to the British throne.

Since then her younger son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, her grandson, Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, and her granddaughter Lady Marina Charlotte Windsor have also become Catholics. Her older son, the Earl of St. Andrews, father of Lord Downpatrick, married a Catholic and thus had been excluded from the succession until the Succession to the Crown Act revoked that exclusion in 2015. The Dukedom of Kent is not subject to the Act of Settlement, so St Andrews' son and heir, Lord Downpatrick, is in line to become the first Roman Catholic Duke or Earl of Kent since the Reformation.

Recent years

Reports by the BBC stated that the Duchess suffered from coeliac disease and Epstein-Barr virus, whose symptoms resemble those of ME or chronic fatigue syndrome, while the Mail on Sunday reported that she suffered from depression. By 1999 she had apparently completely recovered from chronic ill-health, and when asked by the Daily Mail what had suddenly changed, she answered, without elaboration, that she had been suffering unknowingly from coeliac disease. She stepped down from her role as head of the M.E. Society in the UK after this new diagnosis, and has since energetically worked with various charities and schools. When asked by the Daily Mail in 1999 about her long history of illness, her reply was simply that "none of us goes through life unscathed".

In 1999, the Duchess of Kent was refused permission to seat the 12-year-old son of a friend in the Royal Box at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Alternative seating outside the box was offered. She later received what The Daily Telegraph reported in a front-page story was a "curt letter" from club chairman John Curry, reminding her that children, other than members of the royal family, were not permitted in the Royal Box. She, in turn, threatened a boycott of the Royal Box.

The Duchess of Kent decided in 2002 not to use personally the style 'Her Royal Highness' and to reduce her royal duties. Since then she has been informally known as Katharine Kent, although her formal style (e.g. in the Court Circular) remains HRH The Duchess of Kent. By way of example, when she made a formal appearance to confer awards at the BBC's Young Musician of the Year competition in 2002, she asked the organisers to introduce her as "Katharine, Duchess of Kent".

In keeping with her withdrawal from full royal duties, the Duchess took a position as a music teacher in Wansbeck Primary School in Kingston upon Hull for thirteen years. In 2005 the Duchess spoke in an interview on BBC Radio 3 of her liking of rap music and of the singer/songwriter Dido, whose song "Thank You" she chose as one of her favourite pieces of music. She is patron of national charity, Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies, an umbrella organisation for amateur and voluntary music groups.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 22 February 1933 – 8 June 1961: Miss Katharine Worsley
• 8 June 1961 – present: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent

Honours

See also List of honours of the British Royal Family by country

Orders

• 1977 Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)

Honorary military appointments

United Kingdom

• Honorary Major-General
• 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

and formerly

• Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, of Yorkshire Volunteers

Organisations named after the Duchess

• The Duchess of Kent Children's Hospital at Sandy Bay, Hong Kong (1970)
• Hospital Duchess of Kent, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
• The Duchess of Kent Wing at St.Peters Hospital at Chertsey
• The Duchess of Kent Hospice, Reading, Berkshire.

Arms

Arms of Katharine, Duchess of Kent

Notes Coat of Arms of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, depicting her husband's arms impaled with those of her father. Coronet Coronet of a Grandchild of the Sovereign Escutcheon HRH The Duke of Kent's arms impaled with those of her father. Supporters The Royal Supporters differenced with the like coronet and label. Orders The Royal Victorian Order circlet. VICTORIA Other elements Insignia of GCVO appended

Issue

Name	Birth	Marriage		Issue
George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews	26 June 1962	9 January 1988	Sylvana Tomaselli	Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick Lady Marina Charlotte Windsor Lady Amelia Windsor
Lady Helen Taylor	28 April 1964	18 July 1992	Timothy Taylor	Columbus Taylor Cassius Taylor Eloise Taylor Estella Taylor
Lord Nicholas Windsor	25 July 1970	4 November 2006	Paola Doimi de Lupis de Frankopan	Albert Windsor Leopold Windsor Louis Windsor

Ancestry

Katharine is a descendant of Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658), 1st Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland (1653–1658), by his last daughter Frances Cromwell (1638–1720), through the Russells, the Franklands and the Worsleys.

Family of Katharine, Duchess of Kent

16. Sir William Worsley, 1st Baronet (1792–1879), 3rd great-grandson of Sir Thomas Frankland, 2nd Baronet and Elizabeth Russell               8. Arthington Worsley (1830–1861)                       17. Sarah Philadelphia Cayley (d. 1885), daughter of Sir George Cayley, 6th Bt. and Sarah Walker               4. Sir William Henry Arthington Worsley, 3rd Baronet (1890–1973)                             18. The Hon. Henry Hely-Hutchinson (1790–1874), son of Francis Hely-Hutchinson and Frances Wilhelmina Nixon               9. Marianne Christina Isabella Hely-Hutchinson (1832–1893)                       19. Harriet Wrightson (d. 1864)               2. Sir William Arthington Worsley, 4th Baronet                                   10. Edward Chivers Bower (1826–1896)                       5. Augusta Mary Chivers Bower (d. 1913)                             22. William Bennett Martin (1796–1847)               11. Amelia Mary Bennett Martin (1835–1895)                       23. Augusta Marcia Chaloner (1809–1859)               1. Katharine, Duchess of Kent                                         24. The Rev. John Brunner (b. 1800)               12. Sir John Brunner, 1st Baronet                       25. Margaret Catherine Curphey (d. 1847)               6. Sir John Brunner, 2nd Baronet                             13. Salome Davies (1838–1874)                       3. Joyce Morgan Brunner (1895–1979)                                   28. Thomas Morgan (1796–1847)               14. Octavius Vaughan Morgan                       29. Marianne Vaughan (d. 1840)               7. Lucy Marianne Vaughan Morgan (1871–1941)                             15. Katherine Anne Simkin (d. 1902)

See also

• List of people diagnosed with coeliac disease

External links

• Future Talent Charity Website
• The Duchess of Kent at the Royal Family website

Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Duchess of Gloucester	Ladies HRH The Duchess of Kent	Succeeded by Princess Michael of Kent
Academic offices
Preceded by Mary, Princess Royal	Chancellor of the University of Leeds 1965–1998	Succeeded by Melvyn Bragg