DUKE OF KENT BURIED

Southland Times, Issue 24836, 31 August 1942, Page 5

DUKE OF KENT BURIED

PRIVATE_FUNERAL (8.0.W.) RUGBY, August 29. In the presence of the King and Queen. Queen Mary and the Duchess of Kent and other members of the Royal Family the remains of the Duke of Kent were laid to rest in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, this morning. The funeral was of a private character. The coffin was carried in procession on the shoulders of eight Royal Air Force sergeant-pilots. At the funeral six air-marshals acted as pall-bearers, while the King, in Air Force uniform, walked immediately behind the coffin, with the Duke of Gloucester on his right and Sir Lionel Halsey, representing the Duke of Windsor, on his left Then came Kings Peter of Yugoslavia, Haakon of Norway and George of the Hellenes, together with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and the Crown Prince of Norway. The ladies of the Royal Family occupied seats in the choir. Queen Mary, with the Duchess of Kent, entered the choir just before the procession had made its way into the chapel. Detachments from the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the Royal West Kent Regiment and the Royal Fusiliers, of which regiments the Duke of Kent was colonel-in-chief, lined the west end of the chapel and the central nave. The choir, singing “Abide with Me,” led the procession up the nave on to the choir, where the coffin was placed on a bier. The Duchess of Kent knelt in prayer as the eight Royal Air Force sergeants placed the coffin on the bier. The service concluded with Sir Gerald Wollaston, Garter King of Arms, stepping in front of the vault and proclaiming the styles and titles of the late Duke. Then the “Last Post” was sounded by trumpeters of the Royal Air Force. The coffin, wrapped in the Duke’s personal standard, with two wreaths resting on it, was lowered into the vault and to the music of Chopin’s “Funeral March” the Royal Family passed by the open vault.

The Duke of Kent received severe head injuries and a broken leg in the flying-boat crash. Death is believed to have been instantaneous. His body was thrown clear of the flames. Dr Robert Kennedy, the first searcher to identify the Duke, said the machine was shattered in a thousand pieces. “I recognized the Dulce and in addition saw his name on his identity disc,” he said. “He lay perfectly composed. Death must have been instantaneous. - The same applied to his companions.

KING’S REPLY TO MESSAGE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 30. The Governor-General (Sir Cyril Newall) has received the following telegram from the King in reply to a message sent to his Majesty: “I should be grateful if you would express to the Government and people of New Zealand my deep appreciation of their kind message of sympathy in the death of my brother, the Duke of Kent.” The Governor-General has also received messages of sympathy in the Duke of Kent’s death from Mr Raymond Cox, the American charge d’affaires in New Zealand, on behalf of all American citizens at the present time in the Dominion, from Doctor Walter Schmid, consul of Switzerland in New Zealand, and from Mr John Totich. Royal Yugoslav consul in New Zealand. The Southland Centre of the Red Cross Society on Saturday passed a resolution of sympathy with the Royal family in the death of the Duke of Kent.