Britain’s Duchess of Kent, the wife of the cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II and best known for her long association with the Wimbledon tennis tournament, has died aged 92.
Born Katharine Worsley, she joined the royal family when she married Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, in 1961 after meeting him five years earlier when he was stationed at a military barracks in northern England.
Buckingham Palace said she had passed away peacefully on Thursday night at her home in Kensington Palace surrounded by her family.
“The King and Queen and all members of the royal family join the Duke of Kent, his children and grandchildren in mourning their loss and remembering fondly the duchess’s life-long devotion to all the organisations with which she was associated, her passion for music and her empathy for young people,” it said in a statement.
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In 1994 the duchess made headlines in when she converted to Catholicism, becoming the first British royal to do so since King Charles II, who turned to the faith on his deathbed in 1685.
In doing so, she went against an early 18th century law forbidding members of the monarchy from becoming Catholic. The law has since changed.
The duchess will be expected to have a Catholic funeral, attended by senior royals including King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
It will be the first Catholic funeral service held for a member of the royal family in modern British history.
The duchess will be best remembered, however, for her close association with Wimbledon, where from 1969 she helped to hand out the trophies.
She comforted Jana Novotna when she burst into tears after losing the singles final in 1993, giving her a shoulder to cry on.
“I know you will win it one day, don’t worry,” the duchess told her, and was proved right when Novotna won the title five years later.
However, her relationship with the tournament turned sour in 1999 after she was refused permission to bring the 12-year-old son of a bereaved friend into the royal box.
The duchess, who had three children and 10 grandchildren, was also passionate about music and as well as supporting musical charities, for a number of years she taught music at a school in Hull, northeast England.
After visiting Wansbeck Primary School in Hull in 1996, she offered to help with music teaching and gave a weekly 40-minute lesson, as well as working with its choir, spending 13 years at the school.
“I love those children, I loved being there and I love East Hull. I wouldn’t have stayed there for 13 years if I hadn’t,” the Yorkshire-born duchess said.
She also volunteered for the Samaritans, toured countries as a Unicef ambassador and, in 2004, founded the charity Future Talent.
The organisation, whose ambassadors include the musician Sting, works to give children from low-income backgrounds opportunities to excel in music by helping to buy instruments and pay for music lessons.
She also taught part-time in a school attended by children who lived in Grenfell Tower and in 2018 attended a memorial service at the base of the high-rise building to mark the first anniversary of the fire which claimed 72 lives.
The union flag at Buckingham Palace was lowered to half mast at midday on Friday as a mark of respect.
The duchess, who became the oldest member of the royal family following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, made a rare appearance last October.
Wrapped in a blue shawl, she joined her husband outside their Kensington Palace home, Wren House, to watch bagpipers play Happy Birthday on the day he turned 89. - Agencies
