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The Kents

The Duchess of Kent returns to teaching to give an education to children who lived in Grenfell Tower

Buckingham Palace has revealed that the Duchess of Kent has returned to teaching, working in a primary school attended by children who lived at Grenfell Tower.

The Duchess, who asks her students to call her “Mrs Kent”, teaches part-time at a local school attended by children who lived in the tower before it set ablaze last year.

No further details have been released about the 85-year-old royal’s teaching schedule, although it is thought she retired from the profession some years ago and has only recently returned.

72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire last year, with hundreds more losing their homes and possessions.

This includes many children who have had to deal with the loss of many of their friends and classmates.

The Duchess of Kent first started teaching in the late 1990s following her withdrawal from public life in 1996. Shortly after leaving palace life, the Duchess found employment in a new job in Hull. For ten years Katharine worked as a music teacher at a primary school. Her real identity was never detected meaning she could do a job she loved without intrusion.

In 2011, the Duchess conducted an interview with Alan Titchmarsh where she joked: “You go gradually downhill and I ended up teaching in Hull.”

During her time at the school, the Duchess was known as ‘Mrs Kent’ and ‘Katharine Kent’ to everybody else. In 2002, she wrote to The Queen to formally rescind the ‘HRH’ title which she was granted upon marriage to the Duke of Kent in 1961. Since then, she has asked that people do not refer to her as the ‘Duchess of Kent’, but Katharine Kent instead. However, in the Court Circular, she is still officially listed as HRH The Duchess of Kent.