Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Duke restores some royal British luster Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 15:30:30 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE;ABOUT TOWN \HD Duke restores some royal British luster \BY Kevin Chaffee \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES After a seemingly unending spate of scandals over the Princess of Wales' notorious biography, Fergie's topless dalliances and this week's rumored renunciation of the throne by Prince Charles, it was reassuring to be in the presence of one of the more decidedly un-controversial members of the Windsor family. Who could have been thinking of anything as unseemly as "Camillagate" as His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester, greeted knights of the Venerable Order of St. John at the British Embassy residence Monday evening? Certainly not the contingent of clergy and cave dwellers looking on approvingly as British Ambassador Sir Robin Renwick beamed in the Royal Presence. But later on, a few in the decidedly Anglophilic gathering just couldn't help making comments. "He's definitely the real thing," one Georgetown dowager remarked to a friend between bites of the teeny-weeniest, oh-so-correct canapes. "His wife's a commoner, but she'd never disgrace herself like that vulgar Fergie," harrumphed the friend, whose knowledge of good breeding obviously was instinctive. The tousle-haired, bespectacled first cousin to Queen Elizabeth II had just inducted Ronald Haines, Episcopal bishop of Washington, into the order at a private pre-reception ceremony, and had many official introductions to acknowledge, but he nonetheless made an effort to circulate through the room - sans handlers - in a most egalitarian fashion. As the order's hereditary grand prior, the duke is on a four-city tour of the United States to promote its good works and help raise funds from 700 American members for its ophthalmic hospital in Jerusalem. Nine hundred years ago, the knights "put on a lot of armor to protect the pilgrims they were charged with assisting," the duke said, careful to note that the second part of their mission was medical. Revived 100 years ago by his ancestor Queen Victoria, the order's good works in the Middle East began "more or less as a whim," the duke added, when her son, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), walked through the streets of the holy city and randomly chose the spot on the Bethlehem Road where the hospital would be built. "It was perhaps an eccentric . . . sentimental thing to do because there was no political or economic interest there at the time," the duke said, "but as fate would have it, this was the very site where the great collisions have occurred in Jerusalem." A number of local knights attending the reception were easily recognizable by the discreet stars on their lapels. They included interior designer John Peters Irelan, Patricia and David Acheson, Nancy Ignatius, Fritz-Alan Korth, Dorothy McSweeny, William Garrison Jr., Roger Block and Robert Freer Jr. The bejeweled heraldic insignia worn by the duke as head of the order was, of course, the grandest of all. But even such pomp as this couldn't take away from the circumstance of his being a rather regular fellow. "What a nice duke!" exclaimed British-born writer, Diana Mclellan. "He reminds me of George Will, but without the malice." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM