The Duchess of Kent previously spoke candidly about stepping back from public duties in 2002, and the Queen’s unexpected but supportive response
Katharine, Duchess of Kent, once revealed the truth behind her decision to step back from royal duties in 2002. The 92-year-old died earlier this month, with her funeral set to take place at Westminster Cathedral today.
Her royal life panned out differently to many within the Firm, as she devoted 13 years to teaching music at a primary school in Hull, a role she carried out quietly and with the Queen’s full support.
Katharine, the wife of the late Queen’s cousin the Duke of Kent, previously explained to The Telegraph her decision to step back from public life and dispense with her HRH title. The Duchess opened up on her years teaching music at Wansbeck Primary School in Hull instead and said that, despite her previous royal life, “I was just known as Mrs Kent,” to her pupils.
Reflecting on the anonymity she cherished, she said: ““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.
“Why I don’t know, but it just did. I taught children from the youngest possible age right until the end of primary school.
“I took them out into the town of Hull. I had a little choir and they sang in the hospital. A lot of the children came from single parent families and very deprived areas.
“It was very, very rewarding because even children from really tough backgrounds – the music did such wonderful things. It really did. They would get up and sing solos. I don’t remember a child ever saying they didn’t want to do their music.”
Katharine emphasised that the Queen fully supported her decision. “There was nothing that I felt I wanted to hide away from,” she said.
“It was just something that happened in my life. I was always – I wouldn’t say proud of it, but I was glad I did it. I was supported through it as well. The Queen said: ‘Yes, go and do it,’ so I did.”
Katharine died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, on the evening of September 4 aged 92. Her coffin was received on Monday during a solemn ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on the eve of her funeral service later today, September 16.
A devout follower of the Roman Catholic faith, the duchess became the first member of the royal family to convert to Catholicism for more than 300 years, doing so in 1994, and it was her wish to have her funeral at Westminster Cathedral.
Hers will be the first royal funeral at the cathedral, in Victoria, central London, since its construction in 1903. The King and Queen, along with other members of the royal family, will attend the requiem mass.
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