The Duke of Kent, aged 90, hosted lifeguards from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution at Kensington Palace on Friday to celebrate 25 years of the RNLI's lifeguarding service — and used a walking stick as he presented a gallantry award to a lifeguard who pulled a woman from a rip current and brought her back to life.

The event, held on Lifeguard Appreciation Day, saw Lead Lifeguard Supervisor Matty McLeod from Pembrokeshire receive the RNLI's Thanks of the Institution Award for Gallantry. McLeod had saved Londoner Joanna Hicks after she was caught in a rip current at Newgale Beach, dragging her to shore and beginning CPR. In a moment that made the ceremony personal, Hicks stood beside the Duke to present McLeod with his award (HELLO!).

The Duke of Kent, a cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, is one of the longest-serving working members of the Royal Family. He and the late Duchess of Kent, who died on 5 September 2025 after 64 years of marriage, lived at Wren House within the Kensington Palace estate, as well as in Oxfordshire (royal.uk). The palace also houses the London residences and offices of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (royal.uk).

The walking stick is the latest visible sign of the Duke's increasing reliance on support at public engagements. At the first Order of St Michael and St George ceremony of King Charles's reign — held roughly two months before Trooping the Colour — the Duke appeared in a wheelchair while wearing the official robes of his role as Grand Master of the Order, though he later walked unaided behind the King. At Trooping the Colour itself, he was on the Buckingham Palace balcony, phone in hand, taking photographs and video of the occasion (HELLO!).

None of this has slowed his schedule. A century of royal duty compressed into a summer: gallantry awards one week, an ancient chivalric order the next, the monarch's birthday parade after that.

For visitors hoping to walk through some of that history themselves, Kensington Palace's State Apartments are open to the public. Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages the site, runs "The Duke Tour" on 15 and 29 August 2026, from 11:00 to 12:15, with tickets at £49.00 (HRP).

What gives Friday's event its quiet force is the pairing: a 90-year-old duke leaning on a stick to hand an award to a lifeguard who pulled a stranger from the sea and restarted her heart. The ceremony is the machinery. The rescue is the story.