A message from the Pope will be read out at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent.
The service at Westminster cathedral is being attend by the King, the Prince and Princess of Wales and members of the duchess’ family.
Queen Camilla was due to attend but pulled out shortly before the service began due to poor health.
Buckingham Palace said she was suffering from “acute sinusitis” and had travelled to Windsor Castle to rest ahead of the State Visit by Donald Trump tomorrow.
Katharine, who was married to the Duke of Kent, died on September 5, at the age of 92.
Many will remember her from the Wimbledon finals where, for many years, she presenting the winning trophies.
She also sought permission from Queen Elizabeth to convert to Catholicism in 1994 which is why her Requiem Mass is being held at Westminster Cathedral, the ‘Mother church’ for Catholics in England and Wales.
It means the Duchess of Kent’s service is the first Royal Catholic funeral in modern history and the first time a royal funeral has taken place at this cathedral since it was built in 1903.
The King’s attendance, as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, is therefore unusual but not unprecedented.
The last Monarch to attend Requiem Mass was King George V in 1920.
Born Katharine Worsley in Yorkshire, the duchess joined the Royal Family when she married Queen’s Elizabeth’s cousin the Duke of Kent in 1961.
After working on behalf of the late Queen for many years, the duchess stepped back from royal duties and sought permission from the monarch to start teaching in a primary school.
For more than a decade, the Duchess of Kent was known simply as ‘Mrs Kent’, the music teacher at a state school in Hull.
Only the headteacher knew her real identity. The children, parents and staff were not told.
On Tuesday the former headmistress, Ann Davies, attended the funeral alongside the current headteacher, Sam Bullen.
Mourners in the congregation included the actors Rula Lenski, Maureen Lipman, Penelope Keith, Patricia Routledge and Lord Snowden, David Armstrong-Jones.
The author Jeffrey archer was seen walking into the cathedral with his wife, Dame Mary Archer.
The coffin was moved to the cathedral on Monday evening from Kensington Palace where it had rested in the royal chapel there.
The wicker coffin was made from English willow in Somerset.
It was draped with the Royal Standard used for other members of the royal family.
The Royal Dragoon Guards, of which The Duchess was Deputy Colonel-in-Chief formed the Bearer Party to receive the coffin.
And the Piper who plays the lament, ‘Sleep, Dearie, Sleep’ (the same as the one played at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral) is also from the Royal Dragoon Guards.
The music chosen for the service includes Mozart’s ‘Ave verum corpus’, which was chosen by the duchess as her favourite piece when she was a guest on the BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs.
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