Prince George, Duke of Kent

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Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty Prince George, Duke of Kent (George Edward Alexander Edmund; 20 December 1902 – 25 August 1942), was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, and a younger brother of Kings Edward VIII and George VI. He served in the Royal Navy during the 1920s, later worked briefly as a civil servant, and was granted the dukedom of Kent in 1934. In the late 1930s, he became a Royal Air Force officer, serving in staff roles at RAF Training Command and, from July 1941, in the Welfare Section of the RAF Inspector General's Staff. George died in the Dunbeath air crash in Scotland in 1942, aged 39, one of fourteen fatalities among the fifteen crew and passengers.

Early life

Prince George (far right) with his siblings in 1910

George was born on 20 December 1902 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England.<ref name=ppg26aug>Template:Cite news</ref> His father was the Prince of Wales (later King George V), the only surviving son of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

His mother was the Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary, the only daughter and eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. At the time of his birth, he was fifth in the line of succession to the throne, behind his father and three older brothers: Edward, Albert and Henry.

George was baptised in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle on 26 January 1903 by Francis Paget, Bishop of Oxford. His godparents were King Edward VII (his paternal grandfather), Prince Valdemar of Denmark (his paternal granduncle, represented by Prince Carl of Denmark, his paternal uncle), Prince Louis of Battenberg (husband of his father's cousin), Queen Alexandra (his paternal grandmother), Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna (his paternal grandaunt, represented by Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, his paternal aunt), and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (his paternal grandaunt).<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref>

Education and career

George (centre) with his brothers the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry on Time magazine's cover, 8 August 1927

George received his early education from a tutor and then followed his elder brother, Henry, to St Peter's Court, a preparatory school at Broadstairs, Kent. At the age of 13, like his brothers, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII and Albert, later King George VI, before him, he went to naval college, first at Osborne and later, at Dartmouth.<ref name=ppg26aug/> He was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 February 1924,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was promoted to lieutenant on 15 February 1926.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He remained on active service in the Royal Navy until March 1929, serving on Template:HMS and later on the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet (renamed the Home Fleet in 1932), Template:HMS.<ref name=ppg26aug/> He served on the latter as a lieutenant on the admiral's staff before transferring in 1928 to Template:HMS on the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda. His father had previously served at Bermuda on Template:HMS and Template:HMS, as a watch-keeping lieutenant.<ref>"Our London Letter", The Gloucester Journal, Gloucester, England. 21 July 1928, p. 13</ref>

After leaving the navy, he briefly held posts at the Foreign Office and later the Home Office, becoming the first member of the royal family to work as a civil servant.<ref name=ppg26aug/> He continued to receive promotions after leaving active service: to commander on 15 February 1934<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and to captain on 1 January 1937.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

From January to April 1931, George and his elder brother the Prince of Wales travelled 18,000 miles on a tour of South America. Their outward voyage was on the ocean liner Template:SS.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> In Buenos Aires they opened a British Empire Exhibition.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They continued from Río de la Plata to Rio de Janeiro on the liner Template:RMS and returned from Brazil to Europe on the liner Template:RMS, landing at Lisbon.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The princes returned via Paris and an Imperial Airways flight from Paris–Le Bourget Airport that landed specially in Windsor Great Park.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

On 23 June 1936, George was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to his eldest brother, the new king, Edward VIII.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Following the abdication of Edward VIII, he was appointed a personal naval aide-de-camp to his elder brother, now George VI.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> On 12 March 1937, he was commissioned as a colonel in the British Army and in the equivalent rank of group captain in the Royal Air Force (RAF).<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was also appointed as the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Fusiliers from the same date.<ref name="Fusiliers">Template:London Gazette</ref>

In October 1938 George was appointed Governor-General of Australia in succession to Lord Gowrie with effect from November 1939.<ref>"The Duke of Kent: Appointment in Australia", The Times (26 October 1938): 14.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 11 September 1939 it was announced that, owing to the outbreak of the Second World War, the appointment was postponed.<ref>"Duke of Kent and Australia", The Times (12 September 1939): 6.</ref>

On 8 June 1939, George was promoted to the ranks of rear admiral in the Royal Navy, major-general in the British Army and air vice-marshal in the Royal Air Force.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:London Gazette</ref> At the start of the Second World War, George returned to active naval service with the rank of rear admiral, briefly serving in the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty.

He was patron of the Society for Nautical Research between 1926 and 1942.<ref>Hugh Murphy & Derek J. Oddy (2010) The Mirror of the Seas; A Centenary History of the Society for Nautical Research London, Society for Nautical Research, p.191. Template:ISBN</ref>

Personal life

Marriage and children

The Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1934

On 9 October 1934, in anticipation of his forthcoming marriage to his second cousin, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, he was created Duke of Kent, Earl of St Andrews, and Baron Downpatrick.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> The couple married on 29 November 1934 at Westminster Abbey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This was followed by a Greek ceremony in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace, which was converted into an Orthodox chapel for the liturgy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They had three children:

Relationships

George was rumoured to have affairs with musical star Jessie Matthews,<ref name="Panton">Kenneth J. Panton Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy, Lanham,MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011, p.217</ref> writer Cecil Roberts,<ref>King, Francis Henry. Yesterday Came Suddenly, Constable (London) 1993, p278</ref> and Noël Coward,<ref>Barry Day, ed., The Letters of Noël Coward. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. p. 691</ref> a relationship which Coward's long-term partner, Graham Payn, denied.<ref>Brandreth, Gyles (2004). Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage. London: Century. Template:ISBN, p. 94</ref> While married, he was also rumoured to have had an affair with Margaret Whigham, later known as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll,<ref name=londontimes>Template:Cite news</ref> though there is no solid foundation to this rumour.<ref name="Telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref>

George's first major affair was with Gladys Jean Combe, younger daughter of Captain Christian Combe, of the Royal Horse Guards, and his wife Lady Jane, daughter of George Conyngham, 3rd Marquess Conyngham.<ref name="Telegraph"/> He had met her as a sub-lieutenant on HMS Mackay on one of his trips ashore.<ref name="Telegraph"/> He was rumoured to have been addicted to drugs, especially morphine and cocaine, an allegation which reputedly originated from his friendship with Kiki Preston (née Alice Gwynne, 1898–1946), whom he first met in the mid-1920s.<ref>Lynn Kear and John Rossman. Kay Francis: A Passionate Life and Career. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006. p. 28</ref><ref name="Farrant">Farrant, Leda (1994). Diana, Lady Delamere and the Lord Erroll Murder, p. 77. Publishers Distribution Services.</ref><ref>McLeod, Kirsty. Battle Royal: Edward VIII & George VI, Brother Against Brother. Constable, 1999. p 122</ref> Known as "the girl with the silver syringe" due to her addiction to heroin, Preston – a cousin of railroad heiress Gloria Vanderbilt – was married first to Horace R. B. Allen and then, in 1925, to banker Jerome Preston.<ref>Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, Stephen Prior, and Robert Brydon. War of the Windsors: A Century of Unconstitutional Monarchy. p. 58.</ref> She died after jumping out of a window of the Stanhope Hotel in New York City.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His other alleged sexual liaisons include a ménage à trois with Preston and José Uriburu, bisexual son of Argentine ambassador to the UK José Uriburu Tezanos.<ref>Bazán, Osvaldo (2004). Historia de la homosexualidad en la Argentina: de la conquista de América al siglo XXI. (in Spanish), p. 180. Marea Editorial.</ref> In addition to his legitimate children, he was said to have had a son by Kiki Preston.<ref>Nicholson, Stuart (1999). Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington, p. 146. Northeastern University Press.</ref> According to the memoirs of a friend, Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, George's brother Edward VIII believed that the son was Michael Temple Canfield (1926–1969), the adopted son of American publisher Cass Canfield – and the first husband of Lee Radziwill, sister of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (wife of President John F. Kennedy).<ref>Westminster, Loelia, Duchess of. Grace and Favour, Weidenfeld Nicholson, 1961</ref>

After he was sent by the King to the Far East, George began a relationship in Singapore in 1926 with Leila Devitt, a hostess and wife of a commodities czar, 10 years his senior.<ref name="Telegraph"/> He had several other lovers and mistresses throughout his life, including Poppy Baring (whom the King and Queen deemed unsuitable as a royal bride), Lois Sturt, Paula Gellibrand, Audrey Coats, Edythe d'Erlanger, Myrtle Farquharson, Florence Mills, and Adelaide Hall.<ref name="Telegraph"/>

RAF career

The Duke of Kent before he crossed the Atlantic by air

As a young man the Duke came to the opinion that the future lay in aviation. It became his passion, and in 1929, the Duke earned his pilot's licence. He was the first of the royal family to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. Before his flying days, he entered the Royal Navy, and was trained in intelligence work while stationed at Rosyth.<ref>Macwhirter, Robin, 'The Tragedy at Eagle's Rock', Scotsman, 24 August 1985</ref>

In March 1937, he was granted a commission in the Royal Air Force as a group captain.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was also made the Honorary Air Commodore of No. 500 (County of Kent) Squadron Auxiliary Air Force in August 1938.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="No. 500">Template:London Gazette</ref> He was promoted to air vice-marshal in June 1939, along with promotions to flag and general officer rank in the other two services.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

In 1939 he returned to active service as a rear admiral in the Royal Navy, but in April 1940, transferred to the Royal Air Force. He temporarily relinquished his rank as an air officer to assume the post of staff officer at RAF Training Command in the rank of group captain,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> so that he would not be senior to more experienced officers. On 28 July 1941, he assumed the rank of air commodore in the Welfare Section of the RAF Inspector General's Staff.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In this role, he went on official visits to RAF bases to help boost wartime morale.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Freemasonry

George was initiated into freemasonry on 12 April 1928 in Navy Lodge No. 2612. He subsequently served as master of Navy Lodge in 1931, and was also a member of Prince of Wales's Lodge No. 259, and Royal Alpha Lodge No. 16, of which he served as master in 1940. He was appointed senior grand warden of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1933, and served as provincial grand master of Wiltshire from 1934, until he was elected grand master of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1939; a position he held until his death in 1942.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

Template:Further

On 25 August 1942, George and 14 others took off in a RAF Short Sunderland flying boat W4026 from Invergordon, Ross and Cromarty, to fly to Iceland on non-operational duties. The aircraft crashed on Eagle's Rock, a hillside near Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland. George and all but one of those on board were killed. He was 39 years old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince wrote about the crash in their book Double Standards, which was criticised for its "implausible inaccuracy".<ref> Template:Cite book</ref> They alleged that Kent had a briefcase full of 100 Swedish krona notes, worthless in Iceland, handcuffed to his wrist, leading to speculation the flight was a military mission to Sweden, the only place where Swedish notes were of value.<ref>Double Standards p. 424</ref>

His death in RAF service marked the first time in more than 450 years that a member of the royal family died on active service.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> George's body was transferred initially to St George's Chapel, Windsor, and he was buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, directly behind Queen VictoriaTemplate:'s mausoleum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His elder son, six-year-old Edward, succeeded him as Duke of Kent. Marina, his wife, had given birth to their third child, Michael, only seven weeks before George's death. His will was sealed in Llandudno in 1943. His estate was valued at £157,735 (or £Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/year when adjusted for inflation).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

One RAF crew member survived the crash: Flight Sergeant Andrew Jack, the Sunderland's rear gunner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Flight Sergeant Jack's niece has claimed that Jack told his brother that the Duke had been at the controls of the plane; that Jack had dragged him from the pilot's seat after the crash; and that there was an additional person on board the plane whose identity has never been revealed.<ref>"Secret of Duke's plane death." BBC News, Wales, 23 December 2003. Retrieved 26 September 2017</ref>

Portrait by Philip de László, 1934

The Duke's early life is dramatised in Stephen Poliakoff's television serial The Lost Prince (2003), a biography of the life of the Duke's younger brother John. In the film, the teenage Prince 'Georgie' is portrayed as sensitive, intelligent, artistic and almost uniquely sympathetic to his brother's plight. He is shown as detesting his time at the Royal Naval College and as having a difficult relationship with his austere father.

In May 2008, the BBC aired its Radio 4 comedy Hut 33, Series 2, Episode 1, titled "The Royal Visit". The main guest character for this episode was Duke of Kent, played by Michael Fenton-Stevens. The show is set at Bletchley Park with a team of code breakers. The Duke has been chosen to make an impromptu visit, and the code breakers have been told to hide all evidence of their real work and invent a story. "On no account should the Duke be told what really happens at Bletchley because he is a Nazi spy." He is also portrayed as promiscuous and bisexual, as he tries to gain sexual favours from one of the male staff, and one of the female characters recalls a previous liaison with the Duke.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Much of George's later life was outlined in the documentary film The Queen's Lost Uncle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is a recurring character in the revival of Upstairs, Downstairs (2010/2012), played by Blake Ritson.<ref name=dexp26feb>Template:Cite news</ref> He is portrayed as a caring brother, terrified of the mistakes that his family is making; later, he is portrayed as an appeaser of the German regime, but also as a supportive friend of Hallam Holland.<ref name=dexp26feb/>

George and his eldest brother the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, are shown in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC television serial Dancing on the Edge (2013), in which they are portrayed as supporters of jazz and encouragers of Louis Lester's Jazz Band. A sexual attraction to Louis on George's part is also insinuated.<ref name=fur1feb>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Honours and arms

Country Date Appointment Ribbon Post-nominal

letters

Other
Template:Flagu 1923 Royal Knight Companion of Order of the Garter KG <ref>Template:Citation</ref> formally invested in 1924
1935 Extra Knight of the Order of the Thistle KT
1934 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George GCMG <ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
1924 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order GCVO <ref>P. Galloway, D. Stanley, D. Martin (1996), Royal Service, volume 1, pp. 209–212 (London: Victorian Publishing, Template:ISBN)</ref>
1936 Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain <ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
23 June 1936 Personal aide-de-camp ADC <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Flagu 20 September 1922 Knight of the Order of the Elephant <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Template:Flagu 20 December 1924 Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav <ref name="norges1">Template:Citation</ref>
Template:Flagu 1 October 1932 Knight of the Order of the Seraphim <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Template:Flagu Knight Grand Cross of the Chilean Order of Merit <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Flagu March 1939 Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Appointments

Military

Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom

Civic

Arms

Around the time of his elder brother Prince Henry's twenty-first birthday, Prince George was granted the use of the Royal Arms, differenced by a label argent of three points, each bearing an anchor azure.

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Ancestry

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References

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Further reading

  • Template:Cite book(New edition in 1992 by Crécy Publishing, Template:ISBN.)
  • Millar, Peter. "The Other Prince". The Sunday Times (26 January 2003).
  • Warwick, Christopher. George and Marina, Duke and Duchess of Kent. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988. Template:ISBN.

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