Princess Marina’s Financial Woes

The Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1924. Image from Wikimedia Commons

On August 25, 1942, an RAF Sunderland flying boat  hit the top of a Scottish hill, killing all on board, including Prince George, Duke of Kent, the youngest surviving brother of King George VI. His death came as a shock. Dashing and popular, the duke and his wife, the Greek-born Princess Marina, lived a fashionable and comfortable life. With his demise, the young widow plunged into heartbreak, as well as financial limbo.

The Duke of Kent, while not as wealthy as his brothers the king and the Duke of Windsor, was in a financially secure position. He had an elegant home at the posh Belgrave Square and he received £25,000  in Parliamentary annuity (approximately £900,000 in 2020). King George V had left him a portion of his personal fortune, while from his aunt, the unmarried Princess Victoria (who died in 1935), he received Coppins, the country house in Buckinghamshire, described as "an undistinguished two-storied house on 132 acres, with four reception rooms a large music room, and fourteen bedrooms." From then until it was sold in 1972 to Commander Eli Gottlieb, it was the home of two generations of the Kent family. The duchess’ cousin, Prince Philip, was a regular visitor at Coppins during school holidays. Prince Michael of Kent was born there on July 4, 1942. In 1944, Princess Marina's first cousin King George II of Greece, also stayed at Coppins. In 1939, the wealthy Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, died and she assigned the Duke of Kent as the chief beneficiary of her estate. She also bequeathed her jewelry to the duchess.

The Duke of Kent’s passing meant the end of Civil List payments. Whatever money he left was set in trust for his children.  Aside from the few priceless jewels she inherited from her mother, Princess Nicholas of Greece, the Duchess of Kent had very little money. With a disposable income of less than £1,000 a year, the amount was hardly enough to pay for the upkeep of her country home in Buckinghamshire. Princess Marina faced financial problems for the years that followed.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill attempted to secure for her an annual pension from public funds but his efforts were blocked by palace officials and the government for fear that this would lead Parliament to scrutinize the royal finances. The king, in particular, did not want the members of Parliament to debate the enormous income being paid to his mother, Queen Mary, which at that time was £70,000 a year. In 1943 King George VI's  Private Secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, wrote: "For the last few months the King has been urging that the Duchess of Kent's emoluments should be increased at the public expense.  Alec Hardinge and I both felt that this would be a disastrous move, and that it would be most unwise, at this juncture, to provoke a parliamentary, and public, discussion on the general subject of the royal finances.  Winston [Churchill, obviously], whose head is often ruled by his heart in such matters, has hitherto inclined to the opposite view, but I am glad to say that Kingsley Wood [Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1943], who came in today to communicate his Budget secrets to the King, reported to Alec that Winston was now converted, and sees that anything of the sort would be folly.  Apart from any political implications, it has always seemed to me an iniquitous proposal; the Duke of Kent was left the best part of a million by his father, and, granted that she has three children to bring up, and that taxation no doubt leans as heavily on his widow as it does on the rest of us, she surely ought to be able to jog along on what she's got; and if she can't, she has a number of very rich in-laws who could quite well help her without any embarrassment to themselves."

Despite the financial hardships the Duchess of Kent had managed to keep up appearances while keeping economy.  Christopher Warwick wrote of her widowhood finances : "[W]hen Marina was allocated a grace-and-favour residence at Kensington Palace [in 1954], she employed a permanent staff of eleven… Until the mid-1960s, when it was sold in favour of a later and slightly larger, black model, the Duchess travelled everywhere by road in a deep-blue Rolls-Royce… throughout the twenty-six years of her widowhood, whether in … Coppins or Kensington Palace, Marina continued to entertain in a style Prince George would certainly have recognised as his own.  She continued to make frequent private trips abroad; … Marina's wardrobe continued to be replenished with couture outfits by designers such as John Cavanagh, Norman Hartnell and Victor Stiebel.”

The duchess’ biographer, Sophia Watson, succinctly describes her situation: "Most of her husband's money was in trust for his children, leaving Marina with almost nothing to live on". A sale of possessions was necessary and was organized a year after the duke’s death. Among those that ended in the auction included Princess Louise's furniture, which realized £20,000.

Princess Marina certainly looked for ways to economize while keeping up appearances. She paid low wages to her staff, borrowed dresses from designers, wearing them for one evening and returning them the next day. When faced with dire straits once more, which was the case in 1947, more possessions were sold off, including English furniture, objects of art and porcelain which totalled £92,300. The auction caught considerable attention that The Daily Telegraph reported that “I believe that the crowds of connoisseurs and sightseers trying to get into Christie’s this week to view the art possessions of the late Duke of Kent…. will have surpassed all previous records.” In June 1962, another sale sold various object d'art that included most Faberge pieces. 

King George VI and Queen Mary privately helped out the duchess. The Kent children were sent to school through the Royal Family's own resources. In fact, Princess Alexandra became the first British Princess to go to an ordinary school when, in 1947, she went to Heathfield School near Ascot.

When Queen Elizabeth II succeeded in 1952, Princess Marina was allocated an income which equated to a pension. Despite her financial insecurity, she was still better off than her fellow war widows.  While remaining cash-strapped for the remainder of her life, the Duchess of Kent kept a fortune in jewelry, which she passed on to her daughter and daughter-in-law, with an extra provision for the wife of Prince Michael.  While it is difficult to ascertain Princess Marina's wealth in terms of liquid assets, the comfort and style in which she lived suggests that she was not the penurious widow of popular legend.