King Charles lead tributes to Thomas Kingston after death aged 45
The King and Queen have extended “their most heartfelt thoughts and prayers” to the immediate family of Thomas Kingston, the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston, after his death aged 45.
Lady Gabriella paid tribute to her late husband in a joint statement with his family, describing him as an “exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him”.
Mr Kingston was found dead at an address in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire on Sunday evening, with emergency services called to the property shortly after 6pm.
The financier’s death is not being treated as suspicious and no other parties were involved, but an inquest will be held to determine his cause of death.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “The King and the Queen have been informed of Thomas’s death and join Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and all those who knew him in grieving a much-loved member of the family.
“In particular, Their Majesties send their most heartfelt thoughts and prayers to Gabriella and to all the Kingston family.”
A statement released on behalf of Lady Gabriella Kingston, Mr Martin and Mrs Jill Kingston, Mrs Joanna Connolly and Mrs Emma Murray, said: “It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the death of Thomas Kingston, our beloved husband, son and brother.
“Tom was an exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him. His death has come as a great shock to the whole family and we ask you to respect our privacy as we mourn his passing.”
Lady Gabriella, who is the King’s second cousin by way of them both being great-grandchildren of King George V, released a personal photo she took of her husband showing him smiling and dressed in a casual pink shirt as he stood near a stretch of water in the sunshine.
The couple dated for several years before Mr Kingston proposed while they were on the island of Sark in August 2018.
They married at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in May 2019 with Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh, among the guests.
One friend of the couple who reportedly attended their 2019 wedding said of the news: “It’s utterly shocking. None of us saw it coming. I cannot understand it”.
Just days before he died, Mr Kingston reportedly attended an event at the National Gallery in London with Lady Gabriella, and the pair were pictured together on Valentine’s Day at an event also attended by Queen Camilla that celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
Mr Kingston was a director of Devonport Capital, which specialises in providing finance for companies in “frontier economies”.
A University of Bristol graduate, he also spend time in Baghdad, Iraq, where he was a project officer for the Iraqi Institute of Peace and worked to procure the release of hostages after joining the Foreign Office‘s Diplomatic Missions Unit.
He was a close friend of Pippa Matthews, the Princess of Wales’s sister, with the pair said to have dated in 2011 before remaining friends and attending each other’s weddings.
Lady Gabriella is a writer and contributing editor, has worked as an arts and travel director for a brand company and is also a singer-songwriter, releasing two bossa-nova inspired tracks in 2020 as a charity fundraising effort.
She is not a working member of the royal family but is currently being supported, alongside Mr Kingston’s family, by the Royal Household.
No funeral plans have been released so far.
Gloucestershire Police said in a statement: “We were called by the ambulance service at 6.25pm on Sunday with a report of the death of a 45-year-old man at an address in the Cotswolds.
“The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”
Lady Gabriella’s parents, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, attended Tuesday’s memorial service for the late King Constantine II of Greece – who was Lady Gabriella’s godfather and attended her wedding – in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
The Prince of Wales, also a godchild of the former Greek monarch, pulled out of attending at the last minute for personal reasons understood not to be connected to news of Mr Kingston’s death.
Additional reporting by the Press Association.
