Buckingham Palace has released further details about the Duchess of Kent's vigil and funeral next week, including guests and military involvement. Katharine Worsley, who was the wife of the late Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, the Duke of Kent, died aged 92 at her Kensington Palace home 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 private vigil.
The hearse will be preceded by a piper from The Royal Dragoon guards, of which Katharine was Deputy Colonel-in-Chief since the regiment's inception in 1992. The Bearer Party receiving the coffin at Westminster Cathedral will also be found by The Royal Dragoon Guards. The Duchess of Kent's immediate family will be in attendance at the private vigil.
This is likely to include the Duke of Kent, 89, as well as the couple's three children and ten grandchildren. Eldest son, George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, 63, is the father of Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, Lady Marina Windsor and Lady Amelia Windsor. Lady Helen Taylor, 61, shares four children with her husband, Timothy Taylor – Columbus, Cassius, Eloise and Estella – while the Kents' youngest son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, 55, is father to three sons – Albert, Leopold and Louis.
© WireImage
© InstagramThe coffin will rest overnight in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary before 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 family will join the Duke of Kent and members of the Duchess's family at the service.
"The Requiem Mass will be conducted by The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, with additional participation by Bishop James Curry, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, and the Dean of Windsor. Following the Mass, the coffin will be taken by hearse to the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, Windsor," the palace confirmed in a statement.
Making royal history
The requiem mass at Westminster Cathedral in London will be the first Catholic funeral service staged for a member of the royal family in modern British history. 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 the Cathedral, which is the largest Roman Catholic church in England and Wales.
© GettyKatharine, who married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, in 1961, preferred to be known as Mrs Kent and dropped her HRH style in 2002, retreating from royal life to spend more than a decade teaching music in a state primary school in Hull.
