The Duke of Kent, Queen Elizabeth II’s first cousin and the royal patron of the American Air Museum in Britain, cut a dashing figure at a champagne-and-caviar reception for museum donors hosted by British Ambassador Sir David Manning and his wife, Catherine, at their residence Tuesday night. The event was the beginning of a two-day celebration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day, which marked the end of the European part of World War II on May 9, 1945.
The museum, in Duxford, was conceived as a memorial to the 30,000 Americans who died flying missions from British bases; attractions there include such famed American combat aircraft as the Flying Fortress and the Liberator.
Anglo-American sentiments abounded in the presence of the trim and courtly duke, 69, whose schedule during a rare U.S. visit included tours of the battlefield at Gettysburg and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.
A gala dinner on the museum’s behalf that took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Wednesday included as guests four former American women pilots who flew transport planes across the Atlantic during the conflict. Bill McSweeny and his wife, Dorothy, were gala co-chairs in honor of Mrs. McSweeny’s test-pilot father, who died in 1942. “She was a war orphan,” Mr. McSweeny noted. “So my idea is to pay tribute to families who also displayed great courage throughout those years.”
— Ann Geracimos
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