Friends of Thomas Kingston shocked by his death as they tell how he and Lady Gabriella were 'happily married until the end' as royals mourn his passing

Friends of Thomas Kingston have been left shocked by his death as they told how he and Lady Gabriella were 'happily married until the end'.

The financier and former hostage negotiator, 45, was found dead inside his parents' £3million mansion in Gloucestershire on Sunday evening. 

An inquest will be held to establish the cause but there are no suspicious circumstances and no other parties involved. 

Buckingham Palace announced his death on Tuesday, hours after his parents-in-law Prince and Princess of Kent put on a brave face as they attended King Constantine of Greece's memorial service at Windsor Castle. 

King Charles and Queen Camilla have joined the grief-stricken Kents in mourning Mr Kingston.

Yesterday his close friends left reeling from his shock death said he and Lady Gabriella had 'remained childless but were happily married until the end'. 

Friends of Thomas Kingston have been left shocked by his death as they tell how he and Lady Gabriella were 'happily married until the end'

The financier and former hostage negotiator, 45, was found dead inside his parents' £3million mansion in Gloucestershire on Sunday evening

The couple, who wed at Windsor Castle in 2019, were not known to have had any relationship or financial difficulties, a source close to the family told The Times. 

They were last pictured in public together on Valentine's Day at an event to celebrate the works of William Shakespeare. 

The couple were at an event on Wednesday last week at the National Gallery with a friend saying they 'seemed happy and positive as ever'. 

Another long-term friend told of how the attentive Mr Kingston had focused on others 'perhaps at the expense of his own mental health'. 

A priest dubbed the Vicar of Baghdad last night also paid tribute to the late devout Christian.

Reverend Canon Andrew White, who ran Iraq's only Anglican church and worked with Mr Kingston in Baghdad, said the 'adrenaline junkie' pair cheated death countless times.

Mr Kingston worked in the war-torn country for nearly three years, mediating conflicts and negotiating the release of hostages.

Paying tribute to his 'best ever intern', Rev White told the Mail: 'I worked with Tom in all sorts of dangerous places. Most of the time we were there in the middle of war zones.'

Rev White described Mr Kingston as 'a risk-taker and a person of great faith'.

An inquest will be held to establish cause of death but there are no suspicious circumstances and no other parties involved

LAST PHOTO: Thomas Kingston and his wife Lady Gabriella Windsor, at event in London on Valentine's Day 

Reverend Canon Andrew White, who ran Iraq's only Anglican church and worked with Mr Kingston in Baghdad, said the 'adrenaline junkie' pair cheated death countless times

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Lady Gabriella's parents, both attended a memorial service for King Constantine of Greece

'Tom wasn't a yellow-belly. He was never scared. I could never say to him 'do this' and he'd say it was too dangerous. He was always willing to be there.'

Mr Kingston's work with the priest, who has multiple sclerosis, helped maintain the Anglican church in Baghdad, which was founded in 1990.

Mr Kingston, who studied economic history at Bristol University, had several brushes with death, most notably during a suicide bombing at the church in 2004, which claimed 22 lives.

Rev White recalled another occasion when the pair visited a shrine to the prophet Ezekiel in Babylon and got caught in a huge traffic jam on the way back.

He said: 'We couldn't move, and I can remember saying 'What do we do Tom?' And he said, 'Pray'. I said, 'Lord, have mercy on us' and suddenly a huge oil tanker about 25 metres ahead of us blew up.

'If we hadn't been in the traffic jam, we would have been killed instantly. But this was a kind of daily thing that happened.'

Before Mr Kingston met Lady Gabriella, Rev White remembers telling him: 'All of my interns, they achieve two things. They do really exciting work when they leave here, and they marry really beautiful women. And you will do both... and he did both.'

The priest said he met Lady Gabriella, 42, who is 57th in line to the throne, at the Carlton Club in London's Mayfair after Mr Kingston had proposed in 2018.

Kingston, pictured here on the day of his wedding to Lady Gabriella Windsor, lived a remarkable life

Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston are pictured at Royal Ascot in June last year

Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston pictured at the Jungle Part at Annabel's in London in September 2018

Lady Gabriella and Thomas Kingston have official photos taken on their wedding day. The late Queen and Prince Philip are sat to the right of them

The couple were seen beaming at one another at the wedding in Windsor on May 18, 2019

He said: 'She was such a darling. I loved her. I remember sitting down and she said, "Well, who am I really marrying?"

'I said, "You're marrying more than a rock star. You're marrying one of the great people who never took no for an answer and always took risks". I said, "I hope you're very bold, because you need to be".

'She said, "I'm very bold and I'm very much in love, so don't worry".'

In a statement issued by Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, Lady Gabriella and Mr Kingston's relatives described him as 'exceptional' and someone who 'lit up the lives of all that knew him'.

A statement released with her husband's parents, Martin and Jill Kingston, and his sisters, Joanna Connolly and Emma Murray, said: 'Tom was an exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him. His death has come as a great shock to the whole family and we ask you to respect our privacy as we mourn his passing.'