NEW DUKE OF KENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1943, Page 4

NEW DUKE OF KENT

NUMBER TWO ON LIST OF PEERS. In the precedence lists of Britain s 800 lords, spiritual and temporal, issued recently, a seven-years-old snowy haired boy became Number 2, ranking below only the Duke of Gloucester. But not until he attains his majority on October 9, 1956, will Prince Edward George Nicholas Patrick, Duke of Kent, eldest son of the first Duke of Kent, killed last year, be permitted to take ’his seat in the House of Lprds. The young Duke takes precedence in the new Roll of Peers ovex - his uncle, the Duke of Windsor, who became King of England four months before Kent was born.

Since the Roll of Peers was issued, two princes of Royal blood, the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Connaught, have died. In the new roll the Duke of Gloucester, the youthful Duke of Kent, and the Duke of Windsor are the only persons taking precedence over foux - archbishops and 21 hereditary dukes.

Number 800, lowest in the table of precedence, is Lord Keynes, famed economist. Of the 800 members of the Peerage, only 764 can take seats in the House of Lords, because 26 are, like the Duke of Kent, minors, and 10 of the titles are shared among five persons, each of whom has two titles.