Charles's Partner To Wife To The Queen Consort: Journey Of Camilla Rosemary Shand

Camilla Rosemary Shand became the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom after her husband was declared King Charles III. Read to know all about her and her journey so far.

The Queen Consort Camilla with King Charles III.

Source : Royal Family Website

Camilla Rosemary Shand became the Queen Consort after Charles Philip Arthur George was declared as King Charles III post the death of her mother Queen Elizabeth II last year in September. She is the second wife of Charles III who is also her second husband. Here's everything about her and her journey to becoming the Queen Consort.

Queen Consort Camilla: Early Life 

The Queen Consort Camilla Rosemary Shand was born on 17th July 1947 at King’s College Hospital London, the daughter of Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand and the Hon Rosalind Maud Shand. Camilla has a sister, Annabel Elliot, and a brother, Mark Shand. Mark Shand, a conservationist, died on 23rd April 2014. 

The Shand family lived in East Sussex from 1951 onwards. Major Shand, MC and Bar, was Vice Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex and Master of the South Downs Hounds for 19 years. He died aged 89 on 11th June 2006 at his home in Dorset. Rosalind Shand was 72 when she died in 1994 as a result of osteoporosis, according to the Royal Family website. 

The Queen Consort's grandmother had died from the same condition eight years earlier. She has served as President of the Royal Osteoporosis Society since 2001, having supported the charity since 1994. 

She was first educated at Dumbrells School, in Sussex, and then at Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington. She also attended Mon Fertile school in Switzerland and studied at the Institut Britannique in Paris. 

 

From Camilla To The Queen Consort Camilla 

Queen Consort Camilla was previously married to Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles and the marriage was dissolved in 1995. The couple had two children, Thomas Henry and Laura Rose, born in 1974 and 1978 respectively. 

In the 1990s, she was blamed for the breakdown of now-King Charles III's marriage to the late Princess Diana. 

On 9th April 2005, The then-Prince of Wales Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles were married in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall, Windsor. They were joined by around 800 guests at a Service of Prayer and Dedication at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The Service was followed by a reception at Windsor Castle hosted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 

On 9th April 2012, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II had appointed The Duchess of Cornwall, as she was formerly known, to be a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO). 

As per the Royal Family website, early in 2022, Queen Elizabeth II said that when Charles did become king, it was her "sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service" to Britain. 

Queen Consort Camilla has five grandchildren and five step-grandchildren. 

 

Camilla And Charities   

Since her marriage to The King in 2005, Queen Consort Camilla has become Patron or President of over 90 charities. Her charity work is varied but several themes prevail: health and well-being, promoting literacy, the arts, animal welfare and supporting survivors of rape and sexual as well as domestic violence, empowering women; food; dance and heritage.