Buckingham Palace has launched additional particulars concerning the Duchess of Kent’s vigil and funeral subsequent week, together with company and army involvement. Katharine Worsley, who was the spouse of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, the Duke of Kent, died aged 92 at her Kensington Palace house on 4 September. On Monday, the eve of the Duchess’s Catholic funeral, the royal hearse will transport her coffin from Kensington Palace to Westminster Cathedral for a non-public vigil.
The hearse can be preceded by a piper from The Royal Dragoon guards, of which Katharine was Deputy Colonel-in-Chief for the reason that regiment’s inception in 1992. The Bearer Social gathering receiving the coffin at Westminster Cathedral may even be discovered by The Royal Dragoon Guards. The Duchess of Kent’s speedy household can be in attendance on the personal vigil.
That is prone to embody the Duke of Kent, 89, in addition to the couple’s three youngsters and ten grandchildren. Eldest son, George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, 63, is the daddy of Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, Girl Marina Windsor and Girl Amelia Windsor. Girl Helen Taylor, 61, shares 4 youngsters along with her husband, Timothy Taylor – Columbus, Cassius, Eloise and Estella – whereas the Kents’ youngest son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, 55, is father to a few sons – Albert, Leopold and Louis.
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© InstagramThe coffin will relaxation in a single day within the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary earlier than the requiem mass, a Catholic funeral service, takes place on Monday. The palace has confirmed that the King and Queen and members of the royal household will be part of the Duke of Kent and members of the Duchess’s household on the service.
“The Requiem Mass can be performed by The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, with extra participation by Bishop James Curry, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and the Dean of Windsor. Following the Mass, the coffin can be taken by hearse to the Royal Burial Floor at Frogmore, Windsor,” the palace confirmed in an announcement.
Making royal historical past
The requiem mass at Westminster Cathedral in London would be the first Catholic funeral service staged for a member of the royal household in trendy British historical past. The Duchess grew to become the primary member of the royal household to transform to Catholicism for greater than 300 years, doing so in 1994, and it was her want to have her funeral on the Cathedral, which is the biggest Roman Catholic church in England and Wales.
© GettyKatharine, who married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, in 1961, most well-liked to be referred to as Mrs Kent and dropped her HRH type in 2002, retreating from royal life to spend greater than a decade educating music in a state major college in Hull.
