SIMPLE TRIBUTE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20875, 29 August 1942, Page 3

SIMPLE TRIBUTE

THE DUKE OF KENT JOURNEY TO LONDON SCOTTISH RESPECTS v (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) GO a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 27. The Duke of Kent's body in an oak coffin, draped with a flag of air force blue on which lay a single wreath of multi-coloured (lowers, was brought to London by train to-day from the north of Scotland. Aircraftmen guarded the coffin throughout the night at Dunrobin Castle, the Duke of Sutherland's highland seat. Two special coaches carried the bodies of tho other victims from farther north. The Duke of Kent’s coffin was placed beside them at Dunrobin station, where 30 members of the Royal Air Force lined the platform and presented arms in a guard- of honour.

Country folk from the highlands stood silent and bareheaded, paying their last respects. The Duke of Kent’s body will lie in Albert Memorial Chapel, Windsor Castle, until the funeral in St. George’s Chapel, vVindsor.

The Duchess of Kent drove from her Buckinghamshire home to Windsor this morning and went to the Memorial Chapel at Frogmore, where the coffin containing the body of the Duke is lying, having been taken from Euston station to the chapel by a Royal Air Force ambulance tender. The Duke’s personal standard covered the coffin, and there was a wreath from the Duchess, and another from the King and Queen. The bodies of the Duke’s secretary, Lieutenant John . Lowther, his equerry, Pilot Officer Michael Strutt, and his valet, Leading Aircraftman Hales, also have been brought to London. The Lord Chamberlain announced that donations to the naval amenities fund or the army and air force’s comfort funds would be appreciated instead of floral tributes.

The Times points, out that the ordinary rules of succession apply to the Dukedom of Kent, meaning that Prince Edward succeeds as the second Duke of Kent. A warm tribute to the Duke of Kent was paid in the Guildhall to-day by the United States Ambassador, Mr. J. G. Winant. The Duke had been the first to receive him when he landed on British soil, Mr. Winant said, and he had later met him in the course of his Ambassadorial duties. The Duke had known America well and had an affection for President Roosevelt whose name had been given to his younger son —a tribute that will always be remembered. His last journey was undertaken to visit United States troops as well as British and they mourned him with the British.