GREAT BRITAIN: George of Kent

Last week, for the first time in history, a Duke of Kent walked around the stalls of London’s Olympia to open the British Automobile Show. In fact this was the first time in 114 years that there had been a Duke of Kent to open anything.

Younger sons of the King of England are technically commoners. It was a foregone conclusion, as soon as the engagement of Prince George to handsome Princess Marina of Greece was announced, that he would follow his older brothers, York and Gloucester, into the Peerage. The great question was what title would be given him. Two famed royal dukedoms were vacant—Edinburgh and Kent. Last week by letters patent George V ordered that his youngest son be proclaimed Duke of Kent forthwith. Kent, whence come the hops to make British beer bitter, was a Kingdom long before William the Conqueror. There have been Earls of Kent since the 11th Century, but there have been only two Dukes. The first, Henry Grey, 12th Earl of Kent, was made a Duke in 1710, died with the title 30 years later. Bulbous, misguided George III revived the title for his fourth son, cantankerous Edward Augustus, in 1799. Edward of Kent was one of the worst tempered men who ever lived. As a Brit ish officer he did his blundering best to squash the Yankee farmers in the American Revolution. For his efforts he was finally raised to the rank of a Field Marshal. His fondness for having soldiers flogged at cannon wheels or blown from the muzzle of guns, and later his refusal to issue whiskey to the ranks, forced his retirement as Governor of Gibraltar. Visitors to Quebec still are shown the summer house where his West Indian slaves are supposed to have held voodoo orgies. He drank a great deal. Mounting debts kept him out of Britain most of his life. In 1818 he married the sister of Leopold I of Belgium. His greatest service to his country occurred when he became the father of a pale and proper little girl who grew up to be Victoria, Queen of England, Empress of India, Defender of the Faith. Last week King George quickly let the new Duke of Kent understand that he must work for his title. Hardly had the great-great-grandson of the last Duke opened the motor show than it was announced that George of Kent and not Edward of Wales will represent the United Kingdom at the state funeral of murdered Alexander of Jugoslavia.