The King and the Queen Consort had very different upbringings. Charles grew up in the stifling environment of palaces and later at Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland — a place he genuinely hated. In contrast, Camilla describes her childhood as “perfect in every way.”
There’s no doubt that these idyllic early years gave Camilla her relaxed, grounded manners, which the King reportedly admires so much. Queen Camilla grew up in a £3 million family estate in Sussex, known for its racetrack and rural college.
The estate featured a greenhouse, a tennis court, and a total of 5.27 acres of land. It was decorated with heavy antique wooden furniture and period antiques popular in the 1940s and 1950s. More than 50 miles from London, young Camilla enjoyed the simple joys of youth typical for her generation — playing in the garden, reading, and drawing.
A father who inspired a love of reading
The Queen has previously spoken about how her father, Major Bruce Shand — a World War II hero awarded military honors — instilled in her a love of reading through bedtime stories. Camilla described her father, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 89, as “a brilliant storyteller” who “read to us every night and transported us to different worlds.”
Major Shand was awarded two Military Crosses during the Second World War. He joined the army as an officer in the 12th Royal Lancers in 1937. Receiving his first military medal for the campaign in France, Camilla’s father met Winston Churchill while serving in North Africa.
His wife, Rosalind, who had worked in an adoption agency before their marriage, soon became a mother.
A magical childhood
Camilla was born in 1949 at King’s College Hospital in London. She attended a regular primary school near her family home. Her sister Annabel was born two years later, and her brother Mark in 1951 — unfortunately, he died in 2014 after a head injury from a fall. Camilla was devastated.
Camilla’s sister, Annabel, told Vanity Fair: “We had a magical childhood. Unlike many of our generation, we had incredibly warm, easy relationships with our parents. We didn’t have nannies. All our friends, as we grew up, immediately gravitated to my mother. She was absolutely straightforward and one of the kindest, most genuine people.”
Meeting Charles
The girls were sent to the regular primary school Damesbrells in the village of Ditchling, three miles from the family home. Camilla later attended Queen’s Gate in South Kensington — a fashionable girls’ school — before finishing school in Switzerland and France. There, she even managed to smoke on the school roof with her friends!
Camilla shared a London flat with friends, enjoying life as a young debutante. In 1970, she met Prince Charles at a polo match. From the moment they were photographed deep in conversation — on either side of a tree tenderly carved with their initials — it seemed Charles and Camilla were destined to be together.
