' The Duke of Kent was a capable and
energetic soldier, of pure tastes and simple pleasures. In presenting new
colours to the Royal Scots in 1876, the Queen said: 'I have been
associated with your regiment from my earliest infancy, as my dear father
was your colonel. He was proud of his profession, and I was always told to
consider myself a soldier's child.'
The position of the widowed Duchess of Kent, a stranger in a foreign
country, was rather sad and lonely. It was further complicated by
narrowness of means. The old king, her father-in-law, died soon after her
husband. The duchess was a woman of sense and spirit. Instead of yielding
to any natural impulse to retire to Germany, she resolved that her little
English princess should have an English rearing. She found a firm friend
and upholder in her brother Leopold, husband of the late Princess
Charlotte, and afterwards King of the Belgians. On discovering her
straitened means he gave her an allowance of L3000 a year, which was
continued until it was no longer necessary in 1831. As the duke came into
a separate income only at a late period of his life, he had died much in
debt. Long afterwards the Queen said to Lord Melbourne: 'I want to pay all
that remains of my father's debts. I must do it. I consider it a sacred
duty.' And she did not rest till she did it. In reply to an address of
congratulation on the coming of age of the Queen, the Duchess of Kent
said:
'My late regretted consort's circumstances, and my duties, obliged us to
reside in Germany; but the Duke of Kent at much inconvenience, and I at
great personal risk, returned to England, that our child should be "born
and bred a Briton.
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