Prince William’s wife Kate will not be on her own during her husband’s tour of duty in the Falkland Islands: the couple have a new puppy, St James’s Palace said.

Prince William, second in line to the throne, is due to begin a routine six-week posting in the South Atlantic archipelago in early February, leaving Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, back home in Britain.

It is thought their new pet will live at their home near the RAF Valley base on Anglesey, northwest Wales, where Prince William, 29, has been working as a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot for more than a year.

“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a male cocker spaniel,” the St James’s Palace spokeswoman said.

“It’s a few months old and from a litter known to the couple through a family connection.

“It’s a few months old.” The dog’s father is a pet that belongs to the duchess’s mother Carole Middleton.

Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge will carry out her first solo public engagement next week, palace officials said.

She will visit an exhibition of portraits by late British artist Lucian Freud at the National Gallery in London on February 8.

The duchess is a patron of the gallery and studied art history at St Andrews University in Scotland, where she met Prince William. The following week, on February 14, the Duchess will travel to Liverpool in northwest England to tour the Alder Hey Children's Hospital and an alcohol-free bar run by the charity Action on Addiction.