Figure 1.--The Duke of Kent's interest was the Royal Air Force, but he also served in the Navy. The press caption here read, "The Duke and Duchess of Kent took advantage of the Duke's mleave of absence fron naval duty to mpay a short visit to their children, who were evacuated to the west of England." Notice that the Duke's son has an airplane to play with.

The Duke of Kent was King George V's son Peibce George. His first military service was with the Royal Navy. His firstvassignment was with intelligence work while stationed at Rosyth. The Duke ame to see that the future lay in aviation, omcluding military aviation. It became a personal passion. The Duke earned qualifiedvas a pilot (1929). He was the first member of the royal family to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. He was granted a commission in the Royal Air Force as a group captain (March 1937). He was made the Honorary Air Commodore of No. 500 (County of Kent) Squadron Auxiliary Air Force (August 1938). He was promoted to air vice-marshal (June 1939), along with promotions to flag and general officer rank in the other two services. He returned to active service as a rear admiral in the Royal Navy (1939), but in April 1940, transferred to the Royal Air Force. He temporarily relinquished his rank as an air officer to assume the post of staff officer at RAF Training Command with the rank of group captain, so that he would not be senior to more experienced officers. He assumed the rank of air commodore in the Welfare Section of the RAF Inspector General's Staff (July 1941). He conducted official visits to RAF bases to help boost wartime morale. The Duke was the only member of the family to be killed during the War. He was killed in a plane accident, when a Sunderland flying boat (an importantbpatrol plane) crashed in Scotland during 1942. Various rumors abound about his death. One was that the flight was in some way associated with the Hess affair. Two authors jointly published a book that the Duke was trying to take Hess to neutral Sweden where a deal could be negotiated with Hitler. Thevslow lumbering Sunderland would seem a strange chioice for such an assugnment. The book is sensational and highly speculative with little solid evidence. The authors point out a number of inconsistencies in the account concerning the plane crash, but no solid evidence to sustantiate their charges. The book is a standard conspiracy theory book which reaches conclusions not supported by the evidence they offer. [Picknet, Prince, and Prior] The book plays on the fact that some British aristocrats were favorably disposed toward Hitler, especially his anti-Communist policies and use of force to maintain order.

Sources

Picknet, Lynn, Clive Prince, and Stephen Prior. Double Standards.

Created: 10:00 AM 4/21/2020
Last updated: 10:00 AM 4/21/2020