The Duchess of Kent is to be buried at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore in Windsor following her funeral at Westminster Cathedral, a final interment that will place her among more than 30 members of the royal family laid to rest on the estate.
Her coffin will be taken by hearse to Frogmore, where the Royal Burial Ground sits immediately outside the Royal Mausoleum, after the funeral procession. The King and Queen and other senior royals were expected to attend the service at Westminster Cathedral and the subsequent committal.
The Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore was begun in 1862 after the death of Prince Albert; his coffin was temporarily placed in the Royal Vault at St. George's Chapel until the mausoleum's completion in 1871. Queen Victoria was buried beside him in 1901. The Royal Burial Ground, consecrated on the order of King George V in the 1920s as the Royal Vault at St. George's Chapel became crowded, lies directly outside the Mausoleum and became the principal interment place for other members of the family.
The burial ground's first direct interment was Margaret, Marchioness of Cambridge, in 1929. Over the following decades, a number of Victoria's children and other relatives were laid to rest at Frogmore, including Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. In 1928, several coffins were moved from the Royal Vault to the Royal Burial Ground, among them Princess Helena and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.
Those interred at the Royal Burial Ground include historic figures of the modern monarchy: Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Princess Helena, Princess Louise, Prince Arthur of Connaught, Princess Marina, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and members of the Cambridge line. The abdicated King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson are also buried at Frogmore, as are a number of 20th-century royals and their spouses.
Not all members of the royal family chose Frogmore as their final resting place. Princess Margaret, who died in 2002 and was cremated, chose not to be interred there because she found it too "gloomy," Lady Glenconner, a former lady-in-waiting to the princess, told ITV News after Margaret's death. Margaret's ashes were first placed in the Royal Vault and were later moved to the King George VI Memorial Chapel at St. George's, where she was reunited with her parents.
St. George's Chapel has become largely reserved for monarchs and their consorts. The King George VI Memorial Chapel houses the remains of George VI, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and, following her death, Queen Elizabeth II beside her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. The practice of using the Royal Vault as a temporary holding place for coffins prior to final interment has historical precedent: Prince Philip's coffin was interred in the vault following his death and was moved later to the memorial chapel.
The Royal Burial Ground has seen relatively few interments in recent decades. The last burial recorded there in the public record was Sir Angus Ogilvy in 2004; Sir Angus also had the last funeral held at St. George's Chapel for more than a decade until the service for the Duke of Edinburgh in 2021. Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, was among the more recent interments at the Frogmore ground.
Frogmore itself is part of a larger estate with a long royal history. Frogmore House, a Grade I–listed 17th-century manor on the estate, was purchased by Queen Charlotte in 1792 as a country retreat and later became the home of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Queen Victoria's mother. The house was restored in the 1980s, revealing early 18th-century wall paintings by Louis Laguerre and preserving rooms such as the Mary Moser Room and a sitting room recreated to reflect its 1861 appearance.
The estate also includes Frogmore Cottage, a Grade II–listed two-storey house that was the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from 2019 until 2023, when the couple was asked to vacate the property after stepping back from senior royal duties. The surrounding grounds, with lakes, wooded mounds and walks, were laid out in the 1790s and include structures such as a Gothic-style summerhouse.
The Duchess of Kent died at home on Sept. 4 at the age of 92. Her burial at Frogmore continues a long tradition of royal interments on the Windsor estate that link the modern royal family to its 19th-century predecessors and illustrate the ways in which royal burial practices and preferred sites have evolved over time.