Prince George, Duke of Kent

Early life

George was born at 7:35 pm on 20 December 1902 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England. 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 eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. At the time of his birth, he was fifth in the line of succession to the throne, following 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 and first cousin once removed), 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).

Education and career

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. He was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 February 1924, and to lieutenant on 15 February 1926. He remained on active service in the Royal Navy until March 1929, serving on and later on the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet (renamed the Home Fleet in 1932), .

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. and to captain on 1 January 1937.

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 . In Buenos Aires they opened a British Empire Exhibition. They continued from Río de la Plata to Rio de Janeiro on the liner and returned from Brazil to Europe on the liner , landing at Lisbon. The princes returned via Paris and an Imperial Airways flight from Paris–Le Bourget Airport that landed specially in Windsor Great Park.

On 23 June 1936, George was appointed a personal aide-de-camp to his eldest brother, the new king, Edward VIII. Following the abdication of Edward VIII, he was appointed a personal naval aide-de-camp to his elder brother, now George VI. 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). He was also appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Fusiliers from the same date.

In October 1938, George was appointed Governor-General of Australia in succession to Lord Gowrie, with effect from November 1939. On 11 September 1939, it was announced that, owing to the outbreak of the Second World War, the appointment was postponed.

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. At the start of the Second World War, he 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.

Personal life

Marriage and children

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. The couple married on 29 November at Westminster Abbey. This was followed by a Greek ceremony in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace, which was converted into an Orthodox chapel for the liturgy. They had three children:

• Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (born 9 October 1935). He married Katharine Worsley on 8 June 1961. They have three children.
• Princess Alexandra, The Hon. Lady Ogilvy (born 25 December 1936). She married the Hon. Angus Ogilvy, son of David Ogilvy, 12th Earl of Airlie and Lady Alexandra Coke, on 24 April 1963. They have two children.
• Prince Michael of Kent (born 4 July 1942). He married Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz on 30 June 1978. They have two children.

Relationships

George was rumoured to have had affairs with musical star Jessie Matthews, writer Cecil Roberts, and Noël Coward, a relationship which Coward's long-term partner, Graham Payn, denied. While married, he was also rumoured to have had an affair with Margaret Whigham, later known as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, though there is no solid foundation to this rumour.

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. He had met her as a sub-lieutenant on HMS Mackay on one of his trips ashore. 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. 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. She died after jumping out of a window of the Stanhope Hotel in New York City. 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. In addition to his legitimate children, he was said to have had a son by Kiki Preston. 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).

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. 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.

RAF career

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.

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

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, 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. In this role, he went on official visits to RAF bases to help boost wartime morale.

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.

Death

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.

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. George's body was interred initially in the Royal Vault of St George's Chapel, Windsor; in 1968, he was buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, directly behind Queen Victorias mausoleum. 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 £ in when adjusted for inflation).

One RAF crew member survived the crash: Flight Sergeant Andrew Jack, the Sunderland's rear gunner. 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.

In popular culture

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.

Much of George's later life was outlined in the documentary film The Queen's Lost Uncle. He is a recurring character in the revival of Upstairs, Downstairs (2010/2012), played by Blake Ritson. 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.

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.

Honours and arms

Appointments

Military

;Canada

• CAN Colonel-in-Chief, The Essex and Kent Scottish (1937 – 1942)

;New Zealand

• NZ Colonel-in-Chief, Corps of New Zealand Engineers (1938)

;United Kingdom

• UK Colonel-in-Chief, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (1935)
• UK Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Fusiliers (1937)
• UK Honorary Air Commodore, No. 500 (County of Kent) Squadron Auxiliary Air Force (1938)

Civic

• 1938–42: Grand Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators

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.

Ancestry

References

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