In Charles and William's absence, the little
Once again, it was left to Queen Camilla to lead the Royal Family at the memorial service for the late King Constantine of Greece at Windsor.
Neither the King nor, following a late withdrawal, the Prince of Wales, were there at St George’s Chapel yesterday, a further reminder of how thinly stretched the British Monarchy has become.
Yet the 76-year-old Queen is not entirely without help as her husband embarks on treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.
The wider family has rallied round with, in particular, the self-effacing Duke and Duchess of Gloucester stepping to the fore.
We saw this last week when the Queen presented awards to universities and colleges, including prizes for a solution to Ugandan sleeping sickness, a scheme to monitor waste water and another for combatting parasitic worms.
Not all royal duties are glamorous.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester at home in Northamptonshire in 1989 with their children the Earl of Ulster, Lady Davina (front right) and Lady Rose
The Queen and the duchess present the Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education at Buckingham Palace last week
As the pictures from last Thursday show, however, the Queen had company.
Standing by her side beneath the Delhi Durbar canopy in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace, helping to hand out the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes, was Birgitte, the 77-year-old Duchess of Gloucester.
This is no coincidence.
The Gloucesters were with the King and Queen at Sandringham for the New Year celebrations. I’m not aware that the Danish-born Duchess, had ever been a guest at Sandringham before, certainly not so publicly.
A few weeks earlier, the duchess had been seated next to King Charles at his recent 75th birthday party, an event notable for the comparatively small selection of guests.
The duke and duchess are becoming ever-present, and deliberately so
They were there yesterday in the front row at St George’s Chapel, sitting next to Princess Anne and her husband Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
Like chess pieces, they have been moved forward up the board, square by square.
As the rules of chess allow, they have found themselves transformed - from royal pawns, to trusted knights (the Duchess a Dame Grand Cross of course) now gathered around the King and Queen.
As seasoned chess players know, two knights in combination are notably effective, which is good news for the Royal Family – particularly now.
Andrew is followed by ex-wife Sarah, Sir Tim Laurence, Zara and Mike Tindall, and Princess Anne at St George's Chapel yesterday. Neither the King nor William were there
The duke and duchess attend Trooping the Colour in London last year
Charles once wanted a slimmed-down monarchy, but not like this.
Not only is the King out of action, so is the Princess of Wales. Neither Andrew nor Harry is available.
Even the 88-year-old Duke of Kent has been hors de combat following an operation, though he too was at Windsor yesterday.
In short, the King and Queen need urgent support – and they have found it in the dignified shape of his cousins, the Gloucesters.
Richard, an architect by training, has never sought the limelight.
Because he did not have a military career, the duke has never lain a wreath at the Cenotaph. He has rarely taken centre-stage at public events.
Yet Charles’s cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, has always been around, helping when required. Richard, 79, and Birgitte have been conducting royal duties for 52 years.
READ MORE: SARAH VINE: Tragic reminder for this generation of royals that death is no respecter of age or social class
AdvertisementThey are well-trained, dedicated and in good health.
Yesterday was the fourth time in recent weeks that the Duchess of Gloucester had been by the Queen’s side.
Birgitte was with her at Clarence House when the Queen was made an honorary Liveryman – or member – of the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers. The duchess has been a Liveryman since 2005.
Birgitte was with Camilla once again the following night for Gyles Brandreth’s Shakespearian celebration at Grosvenor House on Park Lane – a celebrity-laden evening of readings and performances titled a Valentine’s Day Toast to The King, The Queen and William Shakespeare.
We don’t often see members of the Royal Family meet in public and there is a touch of theatre when they do. The Duchess of Gloucester curtsied to the Queen, they kissed and she curtsied again.
Until 2005 and Camilla’s marriage to Charles – when she became the Duchess of Cornwall – the curtsies would have been the other way around.
As it happens, Richard is a senior royal duke with precedence before his better-known Kent cousins. Effectively, he outranks them.
The youngest grandchild of George V, Richard had never expected be duke, let alone to become a public figure. Tragic circumstances made him so.
He was born as Prince Richard in 1944, the younger son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and his wife, Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Camilla and Birgitte at the event at Buckingham Palace last Thursday
The duke is not only part of the Royal Family but has a network of aristocratic relations, many of them Scottish.
His father, Prince Henry, had been a younger brother of King Edward VIII and King George VI, grandfather to the King.
The duke's immensely dutiful motherThe Duke of Gloucester’s mother, later known as Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, was supremely elegant and immensely dutiful.
When, to general surprise, produced a book of memoirs in later life, the duchess revealed a dry and infectious sense of humour.
When she allowed her younger son, Richard, to have a May Day party at Barnwell, she took a late-night stroll with her lady-in-waiting.
Straying across a musician making a grim sound by the swimming pool, she tried to comfort him, saying: ‘Oh dear, has it gone wrong?’
‘It’s meant to be like that,’ came the indignant reply.
At 4am next day, she was awoken by the sound of cuckoos trying to drown out the sound of the band, relentlessly playing into the small hours.
Looking out of her bedroom window, she saw several people 'floating around in white, playing croquet, which completed the strangeness of the moment’.
Princess Alice lived to be nearly 103, passing away in 2004.
At her memorial service, the present duke told the congregation that having had a mother for 60 years, he now found it strange to find himself without one.
AdvertisementIt became traditional to think of Henry as a stodgy figure, but biographer James Pope-Hennessy’s account of a visit to see him in The Quest for Queen Mary revealed a thoughtful man with a sense of humour.
The present duke has said that his father would today be described as an ‘action man’, a keen rider and countryman who farmed a large estate in Northamptonshire and enjoyed safaris in his younger days.
It had always been Prince Henry’s wish to be a serving soldier but his military career was ruined by his eldest brother’s Abdication, thanks to which, Henry became Regent designate.
Should anything have happened to George VI between 1937 and 1944 when Princess Elizabeth came of age, Prince Henry would have been expected to step in as Regent. His life, thereafter, was one of royal duty.
Something similar happened to the present Duke.
Richard and his glamorous elder brother, Prince William, were largely brought up at Barnwell Manor, the Gloucesters’ home in Northamptonshire.
Prince William was the more outgoing and adventurous of the two, considered a dashing bachelor prince, who was stationed in the British Embassy in Tokyo in the 1970s.
Richard was a quieter, more thoughtful boy. Educated at Eton then Cambridge, his plan was to be an architect and live on the Isle of Dogs.
For a while, that seemed to be his future.
The young duke, then Prince Richard of Gloucester, with the then Prince Charles, right, with their nannies at Clarence House in 1951
The duke and duchess with the King and Queen for a New Year's Eve service at Sandringham
While at Cambridge, Richard met Birgitte van Deurs and they married in July 1972 with his brother William as best man.
Disaster struck almost immediately – and the direction of Richard’s life changed forever, as it had done for his father.
A mere six weeks after the wedding, his brother William took part in an air race near Dudley, turned his plane too sharply and it crashed. William was killed instantly.
By that time, the old Duke of Gloucester, Prince Henry, had suffered a stroke and was living at Barnwell.
A duke who's ever ready to help
I have personal reasons to be grateful to the duke, who was Patron of the Jubilee Walkway Trust. I became chairman in 2002.
The Jubilee Walkway was created by Max Nicholson as an urban walking trail in celebration of the Silver Jubilee in 1977.
But it was also designed to get people onto the South Bank. This was a huge success.
By 1994 the Queen’s Walk stretched from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge and is a vibrant part of London life.
When I took over, the duke secured us the Chinese Dining Room in Buckingham Palace, and was chairman of a meeting of the great and good.
As a result, we were able to establish the Jubilee Greenway – a 60km route round London, linking the Olympic sites.
Queen Elizabeth opened it outside Buckingham Palace on February 29, 2012. The duke was ever ready to help us, as he has so many other organisations for more than half a century.
AdvertisementWithin days Prince Richard, now heir, had moved back into Kensington Palace, their London home, and had assumed his brother’s responsibilities.
When Prince Henry died in 1974, Richard’s mother, Princess Alice, rather hoped that her son could resume his architectural career. Architecture was, after all, his passion.
Richard, though, was required to undertake royal duties and to run Barnwell.
It was not his first choice for a career, but he embraced his destiny – a lesson in sharp contrast to certain younger members of the family in the coming years.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester have a son and two daughters who, like their parents, have avoided the public gaze.
They had happy childhoods at Barnwell and at Kensington Palace with their parents and grandmother, Princess Alice, until she passed away in 2004 at the age of 102.
If it was difficult at times to have three generations in the same household, there was also fun.
I had tea at Barnwell with Princess Alice in 1989 and, as I was leaving, she said: ‘I must show you the morning room.’
I expected to see a room of leather armchairs. Not a bit. It was filled with a model railway track to rival Spaghetti Junction.
This was where the duke and his son had spent long hours playing happily together.
Although generally self-effacing, there is even an engaging personal note in the duke’s approach to royal engagements.
He has a distinguished collection of ties and likes to select one appropriate to the occasion. Much like King Charles, in fact.
Queen Camilla is in good hands.