The Royals are blessed to have the Duchess of Cambridge as a peacemaker - Jayne Dowle

Royal sources say Kate Middleton regards herself as just like any other working mum, albeit with a truly unique role that defies any normal job description.

Wife, mother, daughter and daughter-in-law. International ambassador for the United Kingdom, champion of worthy causes and charities. Style icon and promoter of British industry and brands. And now, chief diplomat of the Royal Family.

Speaking to an entertainment magazine last December, the source revealed that the Duchess of Cambridge works hard to ensure that her privileged offspring are growing up with their priorities in the right place: “She is doing that to help her children be more grounded and keep their reality in check. That’s what really matters to her.”

Shouldering the responsibility for three young lives has been good preparation for dealing with the wider strife which has overshadowed the Royal Family in recent times.

She clearly put aside her own feelings when last Saturday, at the funeral of their grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, she gently stepped in as mediator between her husband and his brother.

A lesser – or self-centred – woman would have held her head haughtily high and ignored Harry, given that just one month before he had denounced her on global television for reportedly making his own wife cry before her wedding. And then of course, there were the wider accusations of family racism and bullying which still have not been fully explained.

However, as the Prince of Wales led the walk out of St George’s Chapel back to the private apartments of Windsor Castle and left his estranged sons, William and Harry in an awkward position, it was the Duchess who stepped in, had a quiet word with both men and then stepped back to allow them to speak to each other.

Even those with only a passing interest in the Royal Family must be curious to know what was said between the three of them. For isn’t this collection of strong characters and imperfect souls, at its heart and for all its wealth, status and privilege, just like any other family?

The funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh reminded us of this with stark reality, driven home by the fact that there were no pompous military uniforms, no crowds lining the streets and just 30 mourners were obliged to sit in socially-distanced segregation.

It was a poignant funeral for our pandemic times, but watched by 13.6 million people on British television alone, half a million more viewers than the Windsor wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle three years ago.

There are always family members who have done wrong, who stand at communal occasions looking remorseful. There are always those who assume a status in the pecking order higher than the one which they have earned.

In every family too, there are personality clashes and discord between individuals. And in the most fortunate families, there are the peacemakers, who rise above the fray and aim for the greater good.

These individuals are the glue which holds these fortunate families together, who bind broken ties and always see the bigger picture.

I dare say that in our own living memory at least, the British Royal Family has never been privileged to have such an individual amongst its number – until now.

To some extent, we can see that Kate takes the Queen Mother as a role model. As the wife of the monarch, George VI, during the Second World War, the then-Queen played a prominent role in bringing the nation together.

How she handled any dissent within her own family is less well-documented. When German bombs destroyed part of Buckingham Palace in 1940, she refused to bow to pressure to flee London and take her daughters to safety abroad.

In a letter to her mother-in-law, Queen Mary, she wrote: “The Princesses would never leave without me and I couldn’t leave without the King, and the King will never leave. How small and selfish is sorrow.”

Yet the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the daughter of an Earl, was born into a grand family, not a middle-class Home Counties one like Kate, and these were very different times.

She was never caught out by the paparazzi on the school run, or expected to defend herself against character slurs extracted in a hyped-up Oprah Winfrey interview.

That the Duchess of Cambridge can meet with grace the demands of being a modern Royal, and also bring to bear both populist appeal and diplomatic brinkmanship bodes well for the future of the institution and for the family she has never let down.

They should bless the day she caught the eye of young William Windsor, as should we all.