Queen Camilla

Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III.

Camilla was raised in East Sussex and South Kensington in England and educated in England, Switzerland and France. In 1973, she married British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles; they divorced in 1995. Camilla and Charles were romantically involved periodically, both before and during each of their first marriages. Their relationship was highly publicised in the media and attracted worldwide scrutiny. In 2005, Camilla married Charles in the Windsor Guildhall, which was followed by a televised Anglican blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. From their marriage until Charles's accession, she was known as the Duchess of Cornwall. On 8 September 2022, Charles became king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, with Camilla as queen consort. Charles and Camilla's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.

Camilla carries out public engagements representing the monarch and is the patron of numerous charities and organisations. Since 1994, she has campaigned to raise awareness of osteoporosis, which has earned her several honours and awards. She has also campaigned to raise awareness of issues such as rape, sexual abuse, illiteracy, animal welfare and poverty.

Early life and education

Camilla Rosemary Shand was born on 17 July 1947 at King's College Hospital, London, the eldest child of Major Bruce Shand, a British Army officer turned businessman, and his wife Rosalind (née Cubitt), daughter of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. She was baptised on 1 November at St. Peter's Church, Firle, East Sussex. Camilla has a younger sister, Annabel Elliot, and had a younger brother, Mark Shand. The family divided their time between their 18th-century country house—The Laines in Plumpton, East Sussex—and their London house in South Kensington. One of her maternal great-grandmothers, Alice Keppel, was a mistress of King Edward VII.

Rosalind was a charity worker who during the 1960s and 1970s volunteered at the Chailey Heritage Foundation (which helps young children with disabilities) near their Sussex home. Bruce had various business interests after retiring from the army. He was most notably a partner in Block, Grey and Block, a firm of wine merchants in South Audley Street, Mayfair, later joining Ellis, Son and Vidler of Hastings and London.

During her childhood, Shand became an avid reader through the influence of her father, who read to her frequently. She grew up with dogs and cats, and, at a young age, learnt how to ride by joining Pony Club camps, going on to win rosettes at community gymkhanas. According to her, childhood "was perfect in every way". Biographer Gyles Brandreth describes her background and childhood:

Camilla is often described as having had an "Enid Blyton sort of childhood". In fact, it was much grander than that. Camilla, as a little girl, may have had some personality traits of George, the tomboy girl among the Famous Five, but Enid Blyton's children were essentially middle-class children and the Shands, without question, belonged to the upper class. The Shands had position and they had help—help in the house, help in the garden, help with children. They were gentry. They opened their garden for the local Conservative Party Association summer fête. Enough said.

When she was five, Shand was sent to Dumbrells, a co-educational school in Ditchling village. From the age of 10, she attended Queen's Gate School near her London home. Her classmates at Queen's Gate knew her as "Milla"; her fellow pupils included the singer Twinkle (Lynn Ripley), who described her as a girl of "inner strength" exuding "magnetism and confidence". One of the teachers at the school, the writer Penelope Fitzgerald, who taught French, remembered Shand as "bright and lively". Shand left Queen's Gate with one O-level in 1964; her parents did not make her stay long enough for A-levels. Aged 16, she attended the Mont Fertile finishing school in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. After completing her course there, she studied French and French literature at the British Institute in Paris for six months.

On 25 March 1965, Shand was a debutante in London, one of 311 that year. After moving from home, she shared a small flat in Kensington with her friend Jane Wyndham, niece of decorator Nancy Lancaster. She later moved into a larger flat in Belgravia, which she shared with her landlady Lady Moyra Campbell, the daughter of the 4th Duke of Abercorn, and later with Virginia Carington, daughter of the 6th Baron Carrington. Virginia was married to Shand's uncle Lord Ashcombe from 1973 until 1979, and in 2005 became a special aide to Camilla and Charles. Shand worked as a secretary for a variety of firms in the West End, and as a receptionist for the decorating firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in Mayfair. She was reportedly fired from the job after "she came in late, having been to a dance".

Shand continued to ride, and frequently attended equestrian activities. She also had a passion for painting, which eventually led to her private tutoring with an artist, although most of her work "ended up in the bin". Other interests were fishing, horticulture and gardening.

Marriages and children

First marriage

In the late 1960s, Shand met Andrew Parker Bowles, then a Guards officer – a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals – through his younger brother, Simon, who worked for her father's wine firm in Mayfair. After an on-and-off relationship for years, Parker Bowles and Shand's engagement was announced in The Times in 1973. Sally Bedell Smith wrote that the announcement was sent out by the pair's parents without their knowledge, which forced Parker Bowles to propose. They married on 4 July 1973 in a Catholic ceremony at the Guards' Chapel, Wellington Barracks, in London. Shand was 25 years old and Parker Bowles 33. Her wedding dress was designed by British fashion house Bellville Sassoon, and the bridesmaids included Parker Bowles's goddaughter Lady Emma Herbert. It was considered the "society wedding of the year" with 800 guests. Royal guests present at the ceremony and reception included Queen Elizabeth II's daughter, Anne; the Queen's sister, Margaret; and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

The couple made their home in Wiltshire, purchasing Bolehyde Manor in Allington and later Middlewick House in Corsham. They had two children: Tom (born 1974) and Laura (born 1978). Tom is a godson of King Charles III. Both children were brought up in their father's Catholic faith, particularly during the lifetime of their paternal grandmother, Ann Parker Bowles; Camilla remained an Anglican and did not convert to Catholicism. Laura attended a Catholic girls' school, but married in an Anglican church; Tom did not attend Ampleforth College as his father had, but Eton—and was married outside the Catholic Church. Tom, like his father, is in remainder to the Earldom of Macclesfield.

In December 1994, after 21 years of marriage, the couple issued divorce proceedings on the grounds they had been living separately for years. In July of that year, Camilla's mother, Rosalind, had died from osteoporosis, and her father later described this as a "difficult time for her". Their petition was heard and granted in January 1995 at the High Court Family Division in London. The divorce was finalised on 3 March 1995. A year later, Andrew married Rosemary Pitman (who died in 2010).

Relationship with Charles

Shand reportedly met Prince Charles in mid-1971. Andrew Parker Bowles had ended his relationship with Shand in 1970 and was courting Princess Anne. Though Shand and Charles belonged to the same social circle and occasionally attended the same events, they had not formally met. Gyles Brandreth states that they did not first meet at a polo match, as has been commonly believed. Instead, they first met at the home of their friend Lucía Santa Cruz, who formally introduced them. They became close friends and eventually began a romantic relationship, which was well known within their social circle. As a couple, they regularly met at polo matches at Smith's Lawn in Windsor Great Park, where Charles often played polo. They also became part of a set at Annabel's in Berkeley Square. As the relationship grew more serious, Charles met Shand's family in Plumpton, and he introduced her to some members of his family. The relationship was put on hold after Charles travelled overseas whilst he was in the Royal Navy in early 1973, and ended abruptly afterward.