The Duchess of Kent will be buried at a sacred ground in Windsor today alongside 33 other Royal Family members including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The coffin carrying the body of Katharine, the wife of the late Queen’s cousin the Duke of Kent, will be taken by hearse to the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore.

The procession will follow the Duchess’s funeral at Westminster Cathedral this afternoon, with the King and Queen and other senior royals expected to attend.

The Royal Burial Ground has a fascinating history which began when construction started on the adjacent Royal Mausoleum in 1862 following Prince Albert’s death.

Albert’s coffin was first placed in the nearby Royal Vault of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle until being moved to the Mausoleum upon its completion in 1871.

Victoria died in 1901 and was buried next to Albert at the Mausoleum, which also has memorials to their daughter Princess Alice, who died in 1878; and her father Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, who died in 1820 when Victoria was a baby.

King George V ordered the consecration of a new Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore in the 1920s because the Royal Vault at St George’s Chapel was getting too full.

The coffins of several royals were then moved from the Royal Vault to the Royal Burial Ground in 1928 – including Victoria’s daughter Princess Helena, who died in 1923; and her husband, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, who died in 1917.

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The Royal Mausoleum and Royal Burial Ground are located at Frogmore in Windsor, Berkshire

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Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are both buried at the Royal Mausoleum in Frogmore

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The Royal Burial Ground is located directly outside the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore

The Royal Burial Ground’s first direct interment was for Margaret, Marchioness of Cambridge who was buried there in 1929 after her funeral at St George’s Chapel.

Two more of Victoria’s children were laid to rest at the Royal Burial Ground over the following years – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, who died in 1939; and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, who died in 1942.

Other notable royals interred at the Royal Burial Ground include the abdicated King Edward VIII, who died in 1972 and is buried there with his wife Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, who died in 1986.

But Princess Margaret, who died in 2002 before being cremated, decided she did not want her body to go to the Royal Burial Ground because she found it too ‘gloomy’.

Her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault, before being moved to the King George VI Memorial Chapel, also at St George’s Chapel, with her parents’ coffins.

Lady Glenconner, a former lady-in-waiting to the Princess, told ITV News after Margaret’s death: ‘She told me that she found Frogmore very gloomy.’

‘I think she’d like to be with the late king, which she will now be. There’s room I think for her to be with him now.’

St George’s Chapel is now normally reserved for monarchs and their consorts, although there has not been a burial at the Royal Burial Ground since Sir Angus Ogilvy, husband of Princess Alexandra, died in 2004.

Sir Angus also had the last funeral at St George’s Chapel for 16 years in January 2005 until Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’s service during the pandemic in April 2021.

Aside from Sir Angus, only other royal to be interred at the Royal Burial Ground since the mid-1990s was Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester in 2004.

Queen Elizabeth II was interred alongside her husband Philip at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, which houses the remains of Elizabeth’s father George VI, her mother the Queen Mother and sister Margaret.

When Philip died 17 months ago before Elizabeth, his coffin was interred in the Royal Vault – ready to be moved to the memorial chapel when Elizabeth died.

George VI died in 1952, but was first interred in the Royal Vault and moved to the memorial chapel when it was built 17 years later.

The Royal Burial Ground is located on the wider Frogmore Estate, which is also where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took up residence from 2019 at Frogmore Cottage, a Grade-II listed two-storey, stucco-faced house.

In 2023, Harry and Meghan were asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage – which had been a gift from Elizabeth II – after stepping down as senior royals.

The Frogmore estate is also the site of Frogmore House, a 17th century manor which has been a royal residence since 1792. It was where Harry and Meghan had their evening reception after their wedding in May 2018.

The house was built from 1680 to 1684 by Charles II architect Hugh May on the estates of Great and Little Frogmore, which were bought by Henry VIII in the 16th century and let to various tenants.

The name comes from the high number of frogs which live in the low-lying marshy area, which is set within a long sweeping curve of the River Thames.

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The abdicated King Edward VIII, who died in 1972 is buried there with his wife Wallis Simpson

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The graves of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson are marked at the Royal Burial Ground

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The Duchess of Kent, pictured in Warrington in 2000, died at home on September 4 aged 92

The lease passed through many hands until 1792 when Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, purchased it to use the house as a country retreat for her and her daughters.

It later became the home of the Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld – Queen Victoria’s mother.

Frogmore House was repaired, restored and redecorated in the 1980s, revealing lost early 18th-century wall paintings by Louis Laguerre illustrating scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid.

From Queen Charlotte’s time in residence, there is the Mary Moser Room – painted for her by the celebrated flower artist with sprays and garlands of brightly coloured flowers.

Princess Victoria’s lilac-coloured sitting room is recreated as accurately as possible from how it appears in old photographs from 1861.

There is also the Britannia Room where, following the decommissioning of the Royal Yacht in 1997, Philip arranged a selection of items to reflect the interior of the much-loved vessel.

The winding lakes, wooded mounds, glades, walks and bridges around the Grade I listed building were laid out in the 1790s, and include a summerhouse designed as a Gothic ruin.