George and Marina, Duke and Duchess of Kent, Part 2

[Eric_Lowe]

He was dating Ingrid for a while.

[grandduchessella]

Well, they were linked in the papers. I don't think there was any romance in reality. 

[JimBob]

George and Marina come attend the wedding of their cousin Ingrid with the crown prince of Denmark in 1935 :

The Duke & Duchess of Kent didn't attend the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark & Princess Ingrid of Sweden.

The British Royal Family were represented at the wedding by Prince & Princess Arthur of Connaught (uncle & aunt of Princess Ingrid), Lady Patricia Ramsay (aunt of Princess Ingrid) & Princess Helena Victoria (cousin of Princess Ingrid's mother).

[MarshieM]

Duke and Duchess of Kent during their visit in Poland, 1937:

Cracow's Cathedral:



Łańcut Castle, count Alfred Potocki was a host:















In Katowice:





Short clip from their visit in Łańcut:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edIzWH9jnZU

[Kalafrana]

Any information on how they came to be visiting Poland? Was it an official visit, or a private one?

Ann

[MarshieM]

That was a private visit. Count Alfred Potocki of Łańcut - one of the wealthiest man in prewar Poland  - send a private invitation to Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but they were too busy, so Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Poland instead of the royal couple. Besides Łańcut and Kraków, they also visited Katowice, where lived Zofia Poklewska Koziełł - a friend of the Duchess, which she knew from the time when she lived in Paris.

I found the same clip on British Pathe:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/duke-and-duchess-of-kent-in-poland

Polish monarchists wanted to make Duke Of Kent King Of Poland:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/68442639

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57632195

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2810551

[grandduchessella]

An article reported they stayed at the country home of Count Potocki but didn't state anymore about the nature of the visit. It did say that Col. Beck, the Polish Foreign Secretary, would be arriving there 'shortly' as well.

There was a trial balloon floated by some monarchists proposing that the Duke be made King of Poland, in a move to restore the Polish monarchy much as the Greek monarchy had been restored using imported Royals. The invasion of Poland cut off any further monarchial plans.

[Eric_Lowe]

They would have made splendid monarchs. Sad it was a dream like the governorship of Australia. It was not to be.

[ashdean]

That was a private visit. Count Alfred Potocki of Łańcut - one of the wealthiest man in prewar Poland  - send a private invitation to Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but they were too busy, so Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Poland instead of the royal couple. Besides Łańcut and Kraków, they also visited Katowice, where lived Zofia Poklewska Koziełł - a friend of the Duchess, which she knew from the time when she lived in Paris.

I found the same clip on British Pathe:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/duke-and-duchess-of-kent-in-poland

Polish monarchists wanted to make Duke Of Kent King Of Poland:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/68442639

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57632195

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2810551

Alfred Potocki wrote fascinating memoird "Master of Lancut" .His flight from Lancut just before the Soviet arrival was legendary...taking with him via Vienna to Vaduz over 60 railway cars of the amazing contents of the castle. Alfreds mother "Betka" nee Princess Elisabeth Radziwill was the hostess during the visit.

[ashdean]

That was a private visit. Count Alfred Potocki of Łańcut - one of the wealthiest man in prewar Poland  - send a private invitation to Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but they were too busy, so Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Poland instead of the royal couple. Besides Łańcut and Kraków, they also visited Katowice, where lived Zofia Poklewska Koziełł - a friend of the Duchess, which she knew from the time when she lived in Paris.

I found the same clip on British Pathe:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/duke-and-duchess-of-kent-in-poland

Polish monarchists wanted to make Duke Of Kent King Of Poland:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/68442639

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57632195

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2810551

Zofia and her family including her aged mother Baroness de Stockel later made their home in a cottage at Coppins...

[grandduchessella]

That was a private visit. Count Alfred Potocki of Łańcut - one of the wealthiest man in prewar Poland  - send a private invitation to Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but they were too busy, so Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Poland instead of the royal couple. Besides Łańcut and Kraków, they also visited Katowice, where lived Zofia Poklewska Koziełł - a friend of the Duchess, which she knew from the time when she lived in Paris.

Zofia and her family including her aged mother Baroness de Stockel later made their home in a cottage at Coppins...

Oh, I didn't know that was the same one! Yes, her mother was very close to Grand Duchess George, Toria and later the Kents (or at least Marina).  She wrote of them all in her memoirs.

[KarlandZita]

Marina with her baby son Edward in 1936 :



In 1937, with her daughter Alexandra :

[Eric_Lowe]

Marina always photograph safe with a string of pearls. Lovely photos. By Cecil Beaton I think. :-)

[grandduchessella]

Came across this when I was googling--

The author Michael Thornton says that Barbara Cartland told him that her daughter Raine (the stepmother of Princess Diana)  wasn't fathered by her husband. She said that was pretty impossible. The next candidate was her lover, the Duke of Portland, but he was believed sterile. So, "Cartland's third lover was not married and the most famous of the three. Handsome, debonair and bisexual, His Royal Highness Prince George, later the Duke of Kent, was the youngest surviving son of King George V and Queen Mary, the uncle of the present Queen, and the lover of Noel Coward. 'PG, as I called him, was 25 at that time and absolutely adorable,' said Cartland, 'as well as being the most amazing lover. In my heart, I have always believed that he was Raine's father. I was shattered when he, too, died in a plane crash, while on active service during the war.'"

Thornton revealed this in an interview in 2008 following a TV movie on Barbara Cartland and her first marriage. (She also had a rumored romance--which she shot down as untrue but  which she seems to have admittedly enjoyed the rumor being tossed around for fun--with Earl Mountbatten.)

[Kalafrana]

Being cautious, I wonder how reliable Barbara Cartland is as a source.

Ann