The Duke of Kent’s 81st Birthday

On October 9, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, celebrated his eighty-first birthday.

Prince Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick of Kent was born in 1935 at no. 3 Belgrave Square, London. He is the oldest child of Prince George, Duke of Kent and his wife Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary at the time, was present at the Duke’s birth to confirm it. Prince Edward was christened on 20 November 1935 at the Private Chapel in Buckingham Palace.

He attended Ludgrove Preparatory School in Berkshire, prior to Eton Collage and lastly the Swiss boarding school Le Rosey. After his schooling, he went on to the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst. Prince Edward is fluent in French and is a winner of the Sir James Moncrieff Grierson prize for foreign languages.

In 1955, he also graduated as a second lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys, being upgraded to captain in 1961. Prince Edward served in Hong Kong between 1962 – 1963 and then on the Eastern Command. He finally was further upgraded to become a major in 1967. In the beginning of the 1970s, Prince Edward also served in Northern Ireland. He retired in 1976 and has since then been promoted to a major-general and also a Field Marshal.

Prince Edward married Katherine Worsley on 8 June 1961 and they had three surviving children together: George (b. 1962), Helen (b. 1964) and Nicholas (b. 1970). They also had a fourth child, who was stillborn in 1977.

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Birthday, The Duke of Kent.

3 Responses to The Duke of Kent’s 81st Birthday