The Duchess of Kent, who has died at the age of 92 (Feb 22, 1933), turned her back on royal duties in later life to enjoy a fulfilling second career as a music teacher. Known to her students as plain Mrs Kent, she spent 13 years working at a primary school in Hull after stepping down from her official work with the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II. Her second act inspired her to set up the charity FutureTalent, to support young musicians from disadvantaged backgrounds, and attracted support from stars including Sting, Dame Judi Dench, Lesley Garrett and Alexander Armstrong. Born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley at Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire, she was the fourth child and only daughter of Sir William Worsley, the 4th Baronet, and his wife Joyce Morgan Brunner.
Her great-grandfather was the chemical industrialist and Liberal Party politician Sir John Brunner, 1st Baronet, and she was also a descendant of Oliver Cromwell. Katharine received no formal education until the age of 10, when she attended Queen Margaret’s School in York, and later Runton Hill School in North Norfolk, where she discovered her passion for music and learned to play the piano, organ and violin. She went on to study music and French at Queen’s College, Oxford and worked briefly as a teacher in London. Aged 24, she met Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, who was serving with the Royal Scots Greys at Catterick Camp Army Base, near to the Worsley’s ancestral home.
Kensington Palace announced their engagement on 8 March, 1961, and they wed at York Minster on 8 June that year - the first royal marriage to take place at the seventh century building since Edward III married Philippa of Hainault in 1328. Katharine looked radiant in a John Cavanagh gown of white silk gauze with a 15ft double train. Her white veil was crowned by the Kent Diamond and Pearl Fringe Tiara once owned by the groom’s grandmother Queen Mary. Among her eight bridesmaids were Princess Anne and Lady Jane Spencer, whose younger sister Diana would later become Princess of Wales. Guests included the Queen and Prince Philip, the Queen Mother and royals from Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, as well as celebrities including Noël Coward and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Family life
The Duke and Duchess welcomed their first child, George, Earl of St Andrews, in 1962, while their daughter Lady Helen Taylor arrived in 1964. Another son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, joined the family in 1970. Tragically, in 1975, Katharine suffered a miscarriage caused by Rubella and two years later gave birth to a stillborn son, Patrick, leaving her with severe depression. She later said of her traumatic experience: "It had the most devastating effect on me. 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."
© Photo: Getty ImagesShe went on to become a grandmother of 10, including the model Lady Amelia Windsor. The Duchess was frequently named as one of the best dressed women in the UK and internationally and was known for her keen sense of style. She had a long association with Wimbledon, where her husband the Duke was President of the All England Club and where she regularly presented the winners with trophies. In 1993, she famously put an arm around a sobbing Jana Novotná after she lost to Steffi Graff. "That’s what you do when people are crying," she later explained. "We are quite normal people. We do hug people who cry. It is a natural reaction."
Charity work
The Duchess travelled the world with UNICEF and VSO, highlighting areas of deprivation in countries such as Cambodia, Macedonia and Nepal. Among her many patronages during her royal career, she was President of NCH Action for Children and Macmillan Cancer Relief and patron of Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. But music remained her first love. She was President of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester for 35 years and a Trustee of the National Foundation for Youth Music. Overseas she was a Visitor to the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and Patron of Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, Australia.
Like the Prince of Wales, she also worked with The Passage, where she volunteered at their homeless shelter. In 1994, Katharine made royal history when she converted to Catholicism, becoming the first member of the royal family to convert publicly since the passing of the Act of Settlement 1701. But because her conversion came after her marriage, her husband the Duke retained his place in the royal line of succession. "I do love guidelines and the Catholic Church offers you guidelines," she said at the time. "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 o Sunday and if you don’t you’re in for it!”
© GettyStepping away
In 1996, the Duchess stepped away from royal duties and later dispensed with her HRH title, famously telling the BBC, "Call me Katharine." She spent the next 13 years as a music teacher at Wansbeck Primary School in Hull. "They have been, without doubt, the most wonderful years of my life," she said in 2010. The Duchess, who often referred to herself as a "Yorkshire lass", was adamant that she was still the same Katharine Worsley she was before her marriage into the royal family. "Who you marry doesn’t change you. I remained the same person," she said. "I went on being Katharine Worsley when I was teaching. I was not any different. I only married into it."
Speaking in 2022, she said of her time in Hull: "I was just known as Mrs Kent. Only the head knew who I was. The parents didn't know and the pupils didn’t know. No one ever noticed. There was no publicity about it at all - it just seemed to work." The experience led the Duchess to see first-hand how musically gifted children were being held back from a career in music by a lack of funding and limited guidance, prompting her to launch Future Talent in 2004.
© Getty Images"If one in 1,000 children I ever teach jump that Berlin Wall and succeeds, it’s worth everything I’ve ever done in my life,” she once explained.Her most high-profile public appearances in recent years included Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in 2018, Wimbledon in 2017 and a Westminster Abbey service to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the late Queen's coronation in 2013. She spent her final years between Wren House, the Kent’s home at Kensington Palace, and the couple’s home in Oxfordshire.
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© GettyThe couple met at a party
Engagement
Katharine met King George V's grandson Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, in 1957 at a private party when he was serving with the Royal Scots Greys at Catterick.
Reports of romance circulated in the following years but there were also suggestions of opposition to a marriage between Queen Elizabeth II's first cousin and a squire's daughter.
The palace announced the couple's engagement in March 1961, with Edward proposing with a sapphire and diamond ring.
2/13
© GettyThe bride wore a dress designed by John Cavanagh
Wedding day
The marriage took place four years later, when the duke was 25 and his bride was 28, with a fanfare of trumpets at York Minster in June 1961.
Princess Anne was the chief bridesmaid, while Princess Diana's older sister, Jane Fellowes, was also among the bridal party.
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© Getty ImagesThe newlyweds emerging from York Minster
Historic wedding
Although from an upper-class background, Katharine was the first woman without a title to marry a royal duke in more than 100 years.
At the time of their marriage, the Duke was eighth in line to the throne.
After a honeymoon at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate and in Majorca, the newlyweds moved into Coppins, the Kents' family home at Iver, Buckinghamshire.
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© GettyThe couple with their three children in 1970
Parenthood
It was at Coppins that she gave birth to their first child, George, who was born a month premature, on 26 July 1962.
On 29 April 1964 the Duke rushed home to Coppins from his regiment in West Germany, for the birth of their daughter, but arrived 12 hours after Lady Helen was born.
The Kents' third child and second son, Nicholas, was born on 25 July 1970.
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© Getty ImagesThe Duchess visiting a WRAC (Women's Royal Army Corps) college in Camberley in 1967
Royal duties
In the years that followed, the Duchess accompanied her husband on numerous official occasions at home and overseas, when the Duke was called upon to represent Queen Elizabeth II.
She also made journeys on her own account, two of them in connection with the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) of which she was controller commandant with the rank of Major-General.
The Duchess visited units of the WRAC serving with the British Army of the Rhine in 1969 and tried her hand at driving a Chieftain tank.
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© Tim Graham Photo Library via GetThe Duchess singing with the Bach Choir at Kings Lynn Music festival in 1983
Music aficionado
A skilled pianist and organist, Katharine also excelled as a singer and often gave public performances as a soprano with the 300-member Bach Choir.
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© Tim Graham Photo Library via GetThe Duchess at a banquet in 1988
Stylish royal
The Duchess also became renowned for her sense of style, and was often compared to Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco.
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© Getty ImagesKatharine with Princess Diana and Sarah McCorquodale at Wimbledon 1981
Tennis fan
A renowned tennis fan, her appearance at Wimbledon to present winners' trophies became a familiar feature of the summer sporting calendar and she was famed for offering support to disappointed runners-up.
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© Getty ImagesCzech tennis player Jana Novotna is consoled by the Duchess
Heartfelt moment
She put aside royal formalities in 1993, hugging a tearful Jana Novotna after she lost the ladies’ singles final to Steffi Graff.
Katharine later became disenchanted with the Wimbledon authorities when, in 1999, she was refused permission to take the young son of murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence into the royal box.
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© Getty ImagesThe couple pictured at a banquet in 1991
Marriage
For many years she led a separate life from the Duke but the couple did not divorce.
Elizabeth II gave the Duchess permission to drop her HRH style when she stepped away from the public spotlight.
But the Duke and Duchess were said to be closer than ever after Edward suffered a stroke in 2013, with Katharine moving back to their Wren House home.
11/13
© Getty ImagesAttending the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 2013
Later years
Although she largely bowed out of public life when she dropped her HRH style, she attended events marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 among others, and was present for the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's 2011 wedding.
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© GettyKatharine put in a rare public appearance at the royal wedding
Last high-profile outing
The Duchess sported comfy white trainers with a floral Erdem dress for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in 2018.
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© Getty ImagesThe Duchess was last seen on her husband's 89th birthday
Last photo
The Duchess, who became the oldest member of the royal family following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, made a rare appearance in October 2024 when she was pictured in a wheelchair for the first time.
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.
