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Why did Prince George Duke of Kent die in a shocking plane crash in 1942?

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The four sons of King George, by Bertram Park
National Portrait Gallery, 1931

Prince George (1902-42) was born at York Cottage in Norfolk when his grandfather Edward VII was king. George was the fourth son of George V and Mary of Teck, his sib­lings being Edward (b1894, Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII), Albert (b1895, later Geor­ge VI), Henry (b1900, later Duke Glouc­ester) and his sis­ter Mary (b1897, later Countess Hare­wood). At birth, he was 5th in succession to the British throne.

After private tutor­ing and prep school, George (13) was sent to naval college preparing for a Royal Navy career, like his brothers. He loathed the naval life, but he remained in the Royal Navy until 1929. He then held Foreign Office posts, then the Home Off­ice.

George was especially close to his brother Edward, the stylish Prince of Wales. From 1929 they lived together in York House in St James’ Pal­ace, sharing an interest in cloth­es, soc­ial­ising and sex. Ironically Edward was given the task of limiting George’s drugs.

Prince Edward and Prince George on U.S Tour, top hats and tails
Fox 1927

The handsome princely bachel­ors were style arbiters and magazine fav­ourites on both sides of the Atlantic. Given his liking for the nightlife and the arts, George’s prefer­ence for a double-breasted style led it to be­ing called The Kent. George played the piano, spoke French and Italian, liked fast cars and pre­ferred sailing to shooting.

Just before marriage, George was made Duke of Kent and Earl of St And­rews. He happ­ily married his second cousin, Princess Marina of Greece and Den­mark in Nov 1934 at West­minster Abbey then a Greek Orthodox ser­vice at Buck­ingham Palace. NB Marina was Prince Philip’s first cousin.

Christopher Warwick wrote George and Marina: The Duke and Duchess of Kent(1988) . The Duke and Duchess of Kent were very popular with the British public, and their home in Belgrave Sq dazzled London society pre-WW2. George was the most cultivated royal, entertaining the best stars from the arts and theat­re.

Duke and Duchess of Kent, by Christopher Warwick

George was said to have a very active sexual life. He fancied an American soc­ialite, producing a son. He liked the bisexual son of Argentina’s ambas­s­ador to London, an African-American cabaret star, an English musical star, a banking heiress and a social­ite Duch­ess. Author Bar­bara Cart­land said that he fat­hered her daught­er Raine McCorq­uodale, Princess Diana’s stepmother.

And George had a 19-year affair with actor-composer Noël Coward. British Security Services reported the two men were parading the London streets dressed as women, but love letters between them were stolen fr­om Co­ward’s house in 1942. George was also close to Prin­ce of Prussia Louis Ferdinand and art historian-Soviet spy An­thony Blunt.

When WW2 started, Rear Admiral Prince George re-joined the Navy, un­hap­pily serv­ing in Admiralty Int­elligence. He had once been a keen pilot so in Apr 1940 he moved to the RAF, working in their Training Command

In Aug 1942, an air­craft from 228 Squadron left RAF Oban, the crew ass­igned to transport the Prince to RAF Reykjavik Iceland for a regular visit to RAF personnel. Prin­ce George and his crew were killed when the flying boat veered off course, crashing into a mountain in Nth Scotland Rescue crews arrived but only the rear gun­n­er, Flight Sarg Andrew Jack, survived because he worked in the aircraft’s tail end that sep­ar­ated. He was hos­pitalised with severe burns for weeks, deeply traum­atised.

The police and Special Branch sealed the area and warned the press off. A Board of Inquiry was convened but Jack’s refusal to speak was probl­em­atic. The Inv­estigation quickly conc­l­uded that Flight Lieut Frank Goyen’s pilot error was to blame. Why are the official papers still emb­argoed?

Consp­iracy theories quickly flourished. Why did the plane crash, des­pite sunny weat­her? Why did the pilot descend to c650’ when he was flying over highland? Was there a problem on the plane or eng­ine? Why did the pil­ot man­oeuvre the plane over land when it was a boat bom­ber that was sup­posed to fly over the water? They noted that Goyen’s flight plan, filed before take-off, totally dis­app­eared! Capt Goyen was an expert flying boat pilot, as was the co-pilot. Who was at the controls? These ques­tions were either not investigated or were not shared publicly.

Andrew Jack's niece later claimed Jack told them Prince George had been at the plane’s controls; that Jack dragged him from the pilot's seat post-crash; and that there was another unidentified person aboard the plane. Princess Marina certainly con­tacted Andrew Jack a few times, but their conver­sations were never divulged.

The Prince had a wrist-bag holding 100 Swedish kroner notes. Why did he bring notes invalid in his country of destin­ation? Was George's death caused because he was heading on a special war-time mission in Iceland, and if so, what was his mission? Did Geor­ge share the pro-Nazi sentiments of his brother, Duke of Windsor? Was he really friendly with Joachim von Ribbentrop, German ambass­ador in London? George was of­ten with the Duke of Hamilton, so could he have been the real target of Nazi deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess on a flight to Scotl­and? Could Brit­ish intelligence, on Win­ston Chur­chill’s orders, have caused the crash?

Prince George was buried in the Royal Burial Ground in the Frogmore Estate, alongside Queen Victoria. He left his widow Marina with 3 small children: Edward b1935, the current Duke of Kent; Princess Alexand­ra b1936, who married busi­nessman Angus Ogilvy; and Prince Michael b1942, still working royals.

The Rake
  
Princess Marina, only 35, continued to per­form official royal duties, including attending the wedding of cous­in Prince Philip to her husb­and's niece Princess El­iz­abeth, in 1947. Her funeral was in 1968, att­end­ed by the royals, but the royal family have NEVER spoken publicly about the Duke.

P.M Winston Churchill honoured the prince in the House of Commons. So a blitz of media co­verage was expected, but the Govern­ment used its war­time powers to block enquiries. Was the plane crash an accident, suicide, or pun­ishment for Nazi-support, bi-sexuality, promiscuity or drug usage?

See British documentary, The Queen’s Lost Uncle, 2003.

Crashed plane on Eagle's Rock mountain in Caithness, Nth Scotland
Daily Express, published in 2017





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