Buckingham Palace announced today that the Duchess of Kent passed away on Thursday evening at Kensington Palace. Today, in her honor, we’re devoting extra space here to some bejeweled highlights from her long, interesting royal life.
June 8, 1961: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent marries Katharine Lucy Worsley in a glittering ceremony at York Minster. The Duke is the elder son of the late Prince George, Duke of Kent (a younger son of King George V and Queen Mary) and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (a granddaughter of King George I of the Hellenes). Katharine, who becomes Duchess of Kent on her wedding day, is the daughter of a Yorkshire baronet. For the ceremony, she wears pearls with a diamond bandeau tiara that belonged to Queen Mary.
November 6, 1961: The new Duchess of Kent joins her husband and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at the Royal Variety Performance, held that year at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London. Katharine, who is a musician herself, will go on to become an important patron of the arts. For the event, which features a memorable performance by Dame Shirley Bassey, Katharine wears her wedding tiara with a gown of eau de nil satin.
October 9, 1962: The Duke and Duchess of Kent are dispatched by the Queen to Uganda, where they represent the monarch during that nation’s official independence celebrations. For the independence ceremony in Kampala, Katharine wears a diamond and pearl festoon tiara borrowed from her mother-in-law, Princess Marina. The trip takes place a few months after the birth of Edward and Katharine’s first child, the Earl of St. Andrews. Eventually, the family grows to include two more children, Lady Helen Windsor and Lord Nicholas Windsor. A third son, Lord Patrick, was sadly stillborn in 1977.
April 21, 1966: The Duchess of Kent joins the ladies of the royal family at the State Opening of Parliament in London. She glitters beside her mother-in-law, Princess Marina, wearing her wedding tiara with additional diamond jewels as the Queen delivers her speech from the throne. Beside her, Marina wears her diamond fringe tiara, which eventually passes to Katharine’s brother-in-law, Prince Michael of Kent. Edward and Katharine will inherit the grand diamond girandole earrings that Marina wears for this occasion after her passing two years later.
April 29, 1969: The Duchess of Kent is elegant in a white evening cape, her wedding tiara, and more diamonds as she and the Duke attend a return dinner hosted by the President of Italy at the Italian Embassy in London. As the old guard of the royal family passes on, the Kents become crucial working members of the family, taking on a significant slate of royal engagements and joining the Queen and the royal family during state visits.
October 5, 1971: Several years on from Princess Marina’s death, the Duchess of Kent begins to wear more jewels from her late mother-in-law’s collection. Here, during a state banquet in honor of the visiting Emperor and Empress of Japan, Katharine wears the Cambridge Sapphires. The jewels, given to Marina as a wedding present by Queen Mary, have a lengthy royal history. They originally belonged to Mary’s grandmother, Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, who was a daughter-in-law of King George III.
June 15, 1978: After Marina’s passing, the Duke and Duchess of Kent also decided to tinker with another jewel. Most believe that they oversaw a renovation of Katharine’s wedding tiara, the diamond bandeau that had belonged to Queen Mary. The tiara, it is believed, was transformed into this diamond and pearl fringe tiara, which Katharine wore almost exclusively in the years that followed. It was also worn as a wedding tiara by their daughter, Lady Helen.
November 1, 1978: The Duchess of Kent dazzles as she arrives for the State Opening of Parliament in London wearing her pearl fringe tiara, paired with Princess Marina’s diamond girandole earrings. The remarkable earrings, which date to the 18th century, come from Marina’s Romanov ancestors. Her mother, Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, was born a Russian grand duchess. The black pearl cluster brooch that Katharine uses here as a clasp on a pearl necklace also comes from Marina’s collection.
April 11, 1984: The Duke and Duchess of Kent attend a banquet at the Guildhall in London given in honor of the visiting Emir of Bahrain. For the occasion, Katharine wears a second tiara setting from the Cambridge Sapphire Parure, made by placing the necklace from the suite on a tiara frame. The original Cambridge Sapphire Tiara was sold by the Kents, and eventually the rest of the parure was reportedly also sold as well.
November 13, 1985: The Duke and Duchess of Kent suit up in gala attire for another Guildhall banquet in London, this time honoring the visiting Emir of Qatar. Katharine wears her pearl fringe tiara with a modern suite of pearl and diamond jewelry for the occasion. This photograph offers an excellent view of the details of the renovated tiara, including its velvet-wrapped base.
June 2, 1990: The Duke and Duchess of Kent join the Queen and monarchs from across Europe at Spencer House in London for a 5oth birthday party honoring King Constantine II, the last monarch of Greece. Constantine and the Kents are closely related—he and Edward are second cousins, both great-grandchildren of King George I of the Hellenes. For the party, Katharine wears Princess Marina’s grand diamond girandole earrings, making one of her final public appearances in the Romanov jewels. Within a few years, the Kents privately sold the earrings.
April 25, 1991: The Duke and Duchess of Kent arrive at Claridge’s in London for a return dinner hosted by the visiting President of Poland. For the occasion, Katharine wears a unique aquamarine and diamond tiara originally designed by the French Art Nouveau designer Georges Fouquet. She wore the tiara on several occasions. Eventually, the jewel was sold at Sotheby’s.
November 20, 1997: At Windsor Castle, the royal family gathers for a special ball held to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke and Duchess of Kent arrive for the black-tie event, with the Duchess wearing midnight blue velvet and pearls.
November 14, 1998: Another royal milestone celebration, the 50th birthday of the Prince of Wales, is marked with a party at his country house, Highgrove. The Duchess of Kent arrives, with her Duke beside her, wearing a string of pearls with diamond and aquamarine earrings that match the Fouquet tiara.
June 25, 1999: The Duchess of Kent represents the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the funeral of Cardinal Hume at Westminster Cathedral in London. Katharine made the personal decision to convert to Catholicism in 1994, a choice that did not affect her husband’s place in the line of succession. (At the time, Catholics were disqualified by succession laws which have since been repealed.) For the funeral, Katharine wears a special royal jewel: Queen Victoria’s Cross Moline Brooch. The cross moline is a symbol of Cardinal Hume’s religious order, the Benedictines.
April 9, 2002: The Duchess of Kent attends the funeral of her husband’s aunt, the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, at Westminster Abbey in London. She wears a string of pearls with a large cross pendant set with purple amethysts. The cross is a smaller, less elaborate cousin of one sometimes borrowed from Garrard by Diana, Princess of Wales. Around this time, Katharine made the decision to retire from public life, choosing often to forgo the use of her title to be known instead as “Katharine Kent.” After stepping back from royal duties, she spent time with her children and grandchildren and exercised her creative mind by giving music lessons in Notting Hill.
June 5, 2012: Even after retiring from life as a working royal, the Duchess of Kent made occasional appearances at important family celebrations, including the royal weddings of the present Prince of Wales in 2011 and the Duke of Sussex in 2018. In the spring of 2012, she memorably joined the royal family at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London for a service of thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. She wore Queen Victoria’s Cross Moline and pearls for the occasion.
The announcement of the Duchess of Kent’s death at the age of 92 means that I’ve decided to shuffle around the content calendar for the coming weekend. This extra article will serve as our usual Saturday post here at The Court Jeweller. Over at Hidden Gems, I’ll be sharing a special edition tomorrow dedicated to the Duke and Duchess of Kent’s 1961 royal wedding. I’ve decided to make the article free for all to read, so if you’ve been wanting a glimpse of the content usually reserved for subscribers, this is an excellent chance. You can learn more about Hidden Gems, and you can sign up either as a free or paying subscriber, at this link. I’ll see you all there tomorrow.
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