The Duchess of Kent, who has died aged 92, was known for her kindness and empathy, but she was also haunted by a tragedy she never quite managed to come to terms with.

Katharine, Duchess of Kent, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 92, was renowned for her kindness and empathy among the royals.

Her compassionate nature was publicly displayed at Wimbledon in 1993 when Jana Novotná narrowly missed out on the Ladies’ singles final. The duchess supported the visibly emotional Czech tennis star with a comforting arm around her.

“How could you go up to someone and say: ‘Oh, bad luck!'” she later shared with the Telegraph. “It was awful for her. She was crying so she got a hug, quite rightly.”

This act was a small indication of the generous spirit she was known for throughout her life. The duchess also strived to lead as normal a life as possible, dedicating over ten years as a music teacher at a primary school in Hull.

“I was just known as Mrs Kent,” she explained, revealing that her Royal status was kept under wraps at the school for 13 years: “Only the head knew who I was,” she said. “The parents didn’t know and the pupils didn’t know. No one ever noticed. There was no publicity about it at all – it just seemed to work.”

A lesser-known aspect of Katharine’s life was the tragic stillbirth of her son, Patrick, in 1975.

After tying the knot with the late Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Kent, in 1961, Katharine had three children; George, the Earl of St Andrews born in 1962, society beauty Lady Helen Taylor, born in 1964 and Lord Nicholas Windsor, who arrived six years later.

However, in 1975, when Katharine was 42, she contracted German measles during her fourth pregnancy. Following medical advice and after consulting a priest, the duchess underwent a termination, for which she “never quite forgave herself”, according to reports.

Two years later, she gave birth to her stillborn son, Patrick, an event that caused overwhelming grief. “It had the most devastating effect on me,” she confessed in a candid interview. “I had no idea how devastating such a thing could be to any woman. It has made me extremely understanding of others who suffer a still-birth.”

She battled acute depression as a result but tried to manage her grief by immersing herself in Royal duties.

Two years later, all that emotion came to a head and she was admitted to hospital for “treatment and supervised rest”, staying for seven weeks.

“I think it would be a fairly rare individual who didn’t cave in under those circumstances,” she reflected in 1997. “It was a horrible thing to happen and I didn’t think I gave myself time to get over it.

“It was not a good period but once I’d come out and returned to a state of normality I quickly realised that it does ­happen to a lot of people. I have never had depression since.”