Who is Thomas Kingston? Husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor found dead with ‘head wound’
Thomas Kingston was a financier who married into the royal family after a summer proposal on the island of Sark almost six years ago.
He became the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston, 56th in line to the throne.
On Sunday the 45-year-old, known as Tom, died from a “traumatic head wound” with a gun found close to his body in an outhouse at his parent’s Cotswolds home, an inquest heard.
Senior coroner Katy Skerrett said that Mr Kingston ate lunch with his parents at their home. After lunch, his father went out to walk the dogs but upon his return, Mr Kingston could not be found in the house.
Approximately 30 minutes later, his mother went to look for him. His father then forced entry into a locked-out building when they heard no response.
“He found Mr Kingston deceased with a catastrophic head injury. A gun was present at the scene. Emergency services were called. Police are satisfied the death is not suspicious,” Ms Skerrett told the inquest.
“A post mortem has been undertaken by Dr Jones, a consultant histopathologist, and a provisional cause of death has been given as 1a traumatic wound to head.”
Mr Kingston was a close friend of Pippa Middleton, the Princess of Wales’ sister, with the pair seen out and about together on numerous occasions.
He attended her wedding to James Matthews in May 2017, accompanied by Lady Gabriella, known as Ella.
The King, who is a second cousin of Lady Gabriella, sent his “most heartfelt thoughts and prayers” to her family after news broke of the sudden death.
Lady Gabriella had been dating Mr Kingston for a number of years when he proposed while they were on the island of Sark in August 2018.
The pair were married in May 2019 in a noon ceremony at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Their wedding at the 15th-century venue came less than a year after the star-studded nuptials of Duke and Duchess of Sussex in May 2018 and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in October the same year.
In attendance were the late Queen and late Duke of Edinburgh, with Harry leaving wife Meghan and then newborn son Archie at home to attend the ceremony.
Among the guests at the service were the Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, designer Nicky Haslam and the family of the Princess of Wales, her parents Carole and Michael Middleton and siblings Pippa and James, who were joined by their partners.
The wedding reception was held at Frogmore House, where Meghan and Harry staged their wedding dinner.
Mr Kingston’s career was broadly focused on finance, with a range of credentials including his most recent position as a director of Devonport Capital, which specialises in providing finance for companies in “frontier economies”.
But he started out in the Foreign Office, according to Devonport Capital’s website.
In 2003, he became project manager for a “Government sponsored conflict resolution project” in Iraq.
According to the Telegraph, he was in Baghdad, working for the release of hostages after joining the Foreign Office’s Diplomatic Missions Unit.
In 2006, Mr Kingston joined Schroder’s Asset Management in London before joining Voltan Capital Management in 2012.
Five years later, he became a director of Devonport Capital Ltd.
He was a Bristol University graduate, having obtained a bachelor’s degree in economic history, and a chartered financial analyst.
