Alice "Kiki" Preston (née Gwynne, formerly Allen; 1898 – December 23, 1946) was an American socialite, a member of the Happy Valley set, and the alleged mother of a child born out of wedlock with Prince George, Duke of Kent, fourth son of King George V. Her drug addiction earned her the nickname "the girl with the silver syringe", Preston was a fixture of high social circles in Paris and New York City, and a relative of the prominent Vanderbilt and Whitney families. Preston's life was marred by several tragic losses and her own mental problems, which eventually led to her suicide at age 48. Biography Early life Preston was born in Hempstead, New York, the daughter of Edward Erskine Gwynne, Sr. (1869 – 10 May 1904) and his wife Helen Steele (d. January 4, 1958). Preston's mother was a great-granddaughter of Justice Samuel Chase, one of the signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence, as well as a granddaughter of Joshua Barney, commodore of the United States Navy during the American Revolutionary War. She was descended from Peter Jacquette, the second Dutch governor of Delaware. Preston's father was the nephew of tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife, socialite Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, making him a distant relation of the wealthy Whitney family. Preston's parents were married in New York City on May 25, 1896. The marriage was a rocky one, and they were separated at some point before reconciling. Besides Kiki, they also had two sons, one being Edward Erskine Gwynne, Jr. (1899 – 5 May 1948), known as Erskine Gwynne, who later became a writer, the publisher of the magazine Boulevardier, and a columnist for the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune. Their other son, Edward C. Gwynne, joined the United States Army Air Corps in his early youth and was killed when his aircraft was shot down. Between 1898 and 1904, Preston and her family resided at different times in Paris, Nassau County, and Park Hill in New York. Family bankruptcy A socialite without regular employment, Preston's father was described as a man who "had extravagant tastes, expended money lavishly and was without business employment", a fact which led his family to legal troubles. In 1899, while in Paris, Gwynne obtained a loan worth several thousand dollars from a jeweler. In February 1901, Gwynne transferred his interest in his property to his mother, Louise