Duke of Kent joins Garter

Press, 2 July 1986, Page 7

Duke of Kent joins Garter

NZPA-AP » London The Duke of Kent has been installed as a Knight of the Order of the Garter — the oldest order of English Christian chivalry — in a service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, which echoed the pageantry of the Middle Ages. The Duke’s elevation to the ranks of the order was the Queen’s personal gift to her cousin to mark his fiftieth birthday last year. The Queen is Sovereign of the order. The other Royal Garter Knights are the Prince of Wales, the Queen Mother, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the King of Sweden. The service was attended by the Princess of Wales and all the adult members of the Kent family except Princess Michael, who was said to be suffering from a throat Infection. Before the installation, the Queen, Prince of Wales, Queen Mother, Prince Philip and the other Garter Knights walked in procession from St George’s Hall in Windsor Castle down the hill to the Lower Ward, where a crowd of several hundred had waited patiently to greet them in very warm weather. The Knights, perspiring gently in their sweeping mantles of deep blue velvet, paraded slowly, two-by-two through the crowds and military bands, down the hill to their chapel, the ancient shrine of English royalty. Earlier, they had eaten off gold plate at a lunch given by the Queen in the castle’s Waterloo Chamber. Garter Knights, at their investiture, are admonished to imitate St George, the legendary slayer of the dragon, and in the chapel the congregation prayed in the name of St George, who laid aside "the fear of man,” and who was faithful until death.