Since the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 – the Duchess of Kent has been the oldest member of the Royal Family.
She was 92.
Many tennis fans will remember the Duchess from the television cameras at Wimbledon during the many years she presented trophies to the champions, once famously consoling a visibly upset Jana Navotna after she’d lost in the final.
Martina Navratalova has even spoken of how her mother was only able to attend Wimbledon to see her win her second final in 1979 because the Duchess of Kent intervened to secure a visa from the then communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
Katharine Worsley entered the Royal Family in 1961 when she married Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, a grandson of King George V.
She had grown up in North Yorkshire, the daughter of Sir William Worsely, the 4th Baronet of the Worsley family estate at Hovingham Hall.
Katharine first met her future husband, who was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1956 at Blenheim Palace and continued their relationship while the Duke was stationed at the Catterick army base in Yorkshire.
So, following their engagement, their strong connections to the county led to the couple choosing York Minister for their marriage ceremony rather than opt for a more traditional royal venue like Westminster Abbey or St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
The choice of the Yorkshire city broke six centuries of royal tradition – and made it the first royal wedding at York Minster since 1328.
But it showed how Yorkshire would have a place in Katharine’s heart, throughout her life.
As the wife of Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin, it put Katharine right at the heart of the British Royal Family and, as a senior royal, she took on duties on behalf of the late Queen.
But given the Worsley family ancestry – that came as something of a surprise.
Through her father, Katharine was actually a descendent of Oliver Cromwell – the same Cromwell who fought King Charles I and later had him tried and executed.
It led to England’s only period as a republic since the Battle of Hastings with Katharine’s ancestor, Cromwell, installed as Lord Protector.
Perhaps those decidedly republican ancestral roots explain, in some small way ,the Duchess of Kent’s unconventional approach to royal life.
After three decades as a working member of the family, she sought – and received – permission from Queen Elizabeth to convert to Catholicism in 1994.
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