Just five days after his 23rd birthday, the Prince departed Britain for a tour of duty with his regiment in Germany.

Princess Alexandra summed up the stringent views and cruel methods of the Royal Family when, referring to her brother's situation and the family's refusal to allow him to marry the woman he loved, she mused to a friend: "They'll advise delay. They always do."

While her royal partner was beginning his lengthy tour of military service, a distraught Katherine decided to leave England for a month-long holiday with family in Canada.

Seeing the utter misery on the face of her face — a deep and enduring depression caused solely by the heartless orders of the Windsors — a friend noted of Kate: "She was like a lost soul. It was clear her heart was 3000 miles away."

Despite having disapproved of her son's somewhat louche behaviour in the years after his father's untimely death, and despite appearing to actually like Katherine, Princess Marina appeared to hope that Edward would play the field during his separation from Kate.

This was despite the fact that Kate herself was everything that anyone could hope for in a daughter-in-law and, most especially, a royal one at that: quiet, loyal and discreet. She was, quite simply, perfect.

There was admirably just one man for Katherine and, as it would soon become apparent to the cynical royals, there was just one woman for Edward...however far away from his love he may be sent.

Following two long years during which Princess Marina absolutely refused to consent to a meeting between Edward and Kate, the couple were finally reunited, far from the cameras, behind the closed doors of Kensington Palace.

Such was Edward's excitement at seeing his girlfriend, he tripped and broke his foot!

The couple's joy soon turned to yet more heartache as they were informed that they must continue to keep a lid on their romance.

The Queen, advised by courtiers, decreed that Edward and Kate couldn't marry yet, for it had only recently been confirmed to the world that Princess Margaret was to wed Antony Armstrong-Jones. There simply couldn't be two royal weddings in one year.

Yet again, the Duke and his bride-to-be were stopped from finally publicising their union and ordered that they must wait another year.

It wasn't to be until March 1961 — almost five years since they first met — that the Royal Family finally consented to the couple making public their enduring love for each other.

With the world believing the romance between the playboy Duke and the shy, home-loving Kate was over almost before it had begun, it was to huge surprise that, on March 8th 1961, it was announced that His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent was to marry Miss Katherine Worsley.

The extent of the shock was summed up by the front page of the Daily Mail which declared: 'Their Big Secret: Engagement was six weeks ago.'