Thomas Kingston, the husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor, died from a gunshot wound to the head, a coroner has revealed.
Mr Kingston, 45, took his own life at his parents’ home in a Cotswold village on Sunday.
Katy Skerrett, senior coroner for Gloucestershire, said the financier, the son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, had lunch with his parents before his father, Martin Kingston, took the dogs out for a walk.
As she opened an inquest into Mr Kingston’s death, Ms Skerett said: “On his return Mr Kingston was not in the house.”
His mother went to look for him before his father forced entry into an outbuilding.
Ms Skerrett said Mr Kingston was found dead “with a catastrophic head injury. A gun was present at the scene.”
Mr Kingston was a committed Christian who once worked as a hostage negotiator in Iraq.
Known as Tom, he read economic history at the University of Bristol before joining the diplomatic missions unit at the Foreign Office.
He was seconded to Baghdad as project manager for the International Centre for Reconciliation, based at Coventry Cathedral, in 2003. The following year, he cheated death in a suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital that killed 22 people.
Rev Canon Andrew White, then the vicar of St George’s Church, the only Anglican church in Iraq, worked closely with Mr Kingston.
He described him as a fearless and very committed Christian, telling The Telegraph: “I loved him so much. The thing about Tom was he was never scared. Whatever I asked him to do, he would do it with a big smile on his face in the middle of a war zone.”
Mr Kingston returned to the UK to work for Schroders, the global asset management firm, as an equity analyst before becoming the managing director of Voltan Capital Management and later a director of Devonport Capital, which provides short-term loans to businesses operating in the developing world.
His father, Martin, was a hugely successful barrister, specialising in planning law. Also a devout Chrisitan, he was elected to the General Synod in 2016.
His mother, Jill, is a trustee of a Chrsitian healing centre and runs the Nadezhda Charitable Trust, which supports projects in Zimbabwe.
‘An exceptional man who lit up lives’
Mr Kingston was introduced to his royal bride by mutual friends and proposed on the car-free Channel Island of Sark, where his parents have a holiday home.
Lady Gabriella’s father, Prince Michael, is Elizabeth II’s first cousin and a grandson of George V.
The couple married at St George’s Chapel Windsor in May 2019, in a lavish a ceremony attended by an array of senior royals including the late Queen and Prince Philip.
The couple were said to have been happily married to the end and were most recently pictured together, beaming for the camera, on Valentine’s Day.
Buckingham Palace announced Mr Kingston’s death on Tuesday evening.
Lady Gabriella, paid tribute to her husband, describing him as “an exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him.”
She said his death had come as a “great shock to the whole family.”
Buckingham Palace said the King and Queen joined Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and all those who knew Mr Kingston in grieving “a much-loved member of the family.”
A spokesperson added: “In particular, Their Majesties send their most heartfelt thoughts and prayers to Gabriella and to all the Kingston family.”
Gloucestershire police said it had been called to an address in the Cotswolds at 6.25pm on Sunday.
It said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
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