Grieving Lady Gabriella Windsor to take part in Royal Ascot carriage procession for the first time – alongside Princess Anne – days after low-key appearance at Trooping The Colour

Lady Gabriella Windsor will appear in the carriage procession at Royal Ascot today, making her first official public appearance since the tragic death of her husband, Thomas Kingston, in February.

The 43-year-old daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent attended the society racing event with her late husband last year.

War hero and financier Kingston died by suicide earlier this year at the age of 45 at his parents’ home in the Cotswolds.

Today the grieving royal family will take their place for the occasion alongside Princess Anne and Peter Phillips; The royal family is thought to have been a beacon of support for Lady Gabriella in recent months.

This weekend, Ella, as she is known to friends, made a low-key appearance at Trooping the Color after being invited by the King.

She was seen watching the parade with family at the palace, including her brother, Lord Frederick Windsor, and his wife, Sophie Winkleman, who she stood next to.

Lady Gabriella hung from the balcony and watched the RAF fly by from Buckingham Palace.
There’s an invitation to Trooping the Color and now Royal Ascot is a touching sign of the Royal Fami

On Saturday, Lady Gabriella was photographed observing the action behind Princess Anne, her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Lawrence and the Duke of Kent.

Together with other junior royals, Ella had regularly appeared on the balcony until the arrival of Covid-19 in early 2020.

For Saturday’s event, Lady Gabriella made an elegant presentation in a pale pink ensemble and a matching fascinator.

Her actions come after it emerged her husband had died from a ‘traumatic head injury’, an inquest heard in March. His death was not considered suspicious and no one else was involved.

The coroner’s court was told: ‘His father went to walk the dogs. On his return, Mr. Kingston was not in the house. After about 30 minutes his mother went looking for him.”

Katy Skerrett, Gloucestershire’s senior coroner, added: ‘His father forced entry into a locked outbuilding. Mr Kingston was found inside with catastrophic head injuries. A firearm was present at the scene. The police are convinced that the death is not suspicious.’

The coroner said a post-mortem examination had been carried out and the preliminary cause of death had been determined as a traumatic wound to the head. She formally opened and suspended the inquest into the death.

Announcing his death in February, Buckingham Palace described Mr Kingston, a financier, as a “much loved member of the family” who was mourned by King Charles and Queen Camilla. A friend of the couple says: ‘They remained childless, but were happily married until the end.’

After studying economic history at the University of Bristol, Mr Kingston joined the Foreign Office’s Diplomatic Missions Unit in Iraq, where he worked as a Project Officer for the Iraqi Institute of Peace from 2003 to 2006.

Following his death, Lady Gabriella paid tribute to her husband in a joint statement with his family, describing him as an ‘exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him’ – and calling his death a ‘great shock to the whole family ‘. ‘.

She released a personal photo she took of her husband, which showed him smiling and wearing a casual pink shirt as he stood by a stretch of water in the sun.

Mr Kingston and Lady Gabriella, known as Ella, married in 2019 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in a ceremony attended by Prince Michael’s cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Philip.

In April it was revealed that Lady Gabriella was moving back in with her parents at their Kensington Palace home.

“They wanted Ella to be with them, and she didn’t want to be alone in the house she shared with Tom,” one of her friends told Richard Eden at the time.

Lady Gabriella, 43, whose father is a first cousin of the late queen, had previously lived in the Notting Hill area of ​​west London.

After the financier’s death, King Charles and Queen Camilla’s spokesperson said they had sent “their most sincere thoughts and prayers to Gabriella and the entire Kingston family.”

Lady Gabriella is the king’s second cousin. They are both great-grandchildren of King George V.

Mr Kingston was a director of Devonport Capital, which specialized in providing financing to companies in frontier economies.

He was a close friend of Pippa Matthews, sister of the Princess of Wales, and the pair are said to have dated in 2011.

Lady Gabriella, who has worked as art and travel director for a branding company, is a writer and editor.

She is also a singer-songwriter and released two bossa nova-inspired songs in 2020 to raise money for charity.

Lady Gabrielle and her husband were last pictured together in public on Valentine’s Day at an event celebrating the works of William Shakespeare.