THE Duchess of Kent, who was Chief Patron of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation in Warrington, has died at the age of 92, Buckingham Palace has announced today, with “deep sorrow”.
She “passed away peacefully last night at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her family”, a statement said on Friday, with flags on royal residences, including Buckingham Palace, now lowered to half mast.
The duchess, Katharine, was the oldest member of the Royal Family, married to Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
She will be remembered as a familiar figure at the Wimbledon tennis championships, where she handed over trophies – and consoled those who had lost, famously including a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.
HRH The Duchess of Kent served as the Chief Patron of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation and officially opened the Peace Centre in Warrington in March 2000, a living memorial to the boys killed in the 1993 Warrington IRA bombing.
She had previously visited Warrington to visit Bewsey Old Hall, which had earlier been suggested as a possible venue for the Peace Centre.
The Foundation was established by the boys’ parents, Colin and Wendy Parry, to promote peace and support victims of conflict.
The Duchess’s support for the peace centre, a legacy to Tim and Johnathan, who both died following the IRA bomb attack on the town in March 1993, was a significant endorsement.
The Foundation recently sold the Peace Centre to Warrington Borough Council but continues its work by becoming a grant-making charity that funds other organisations supporting victims of terrorism and working to reduce violence.
