We know all about the British royal family tree—but what about the family tree of Queen Camilla? Here's everything you need to know about the extended family of Camilla Shand, a.k.a. Camilla Parker Bowles, a.k.a. Queen Camilla:
Camilla's parents: Rosalind Cubitt and Bruce Shand
Rosalind Cubitt was born on August 11, 1921 in London, the daughter of Roland Calver Cubitt, the 3rd Lord Ashcombe (b. 1899, d. 1962), and Sonia Rosemary Cubitt (née Keppel) (b. 1900, d. 1986). Sonia's mother (and Rosalind's grandmother) Alice Keppel, was a mistress of King Edward VII. In 1939, Rosalind was named "Debutante of the Year." She married Bruce in 1946 at St. Paul's Church in London. Rosalind died in 1994 at age 72 from osteoporosis, and her battle with the disease has inspired Camilla to take up prevention of the disease as one of her charitable focuses.
Bruce Shand was born on January 22, 1917 in London England, to Philip Morton Shand (b. 1888, d. 1960), an architectural writer and critic, and Edith Marguerite Harrington (b. 1893, d. 1981). His parents divorced in 1920 when he was just three years old, and he was primarily raised by his grandmother.
Bruce attended Rugby School, then Sandhurst, and joined the British Army as a second lieutenant in the 12th Royal Lancers. As an officer in the British Army, he served in France and North Africa during World War II. On November 6, 1942, he was captured as a prisoner of war, and taken to a hospital in Athens then Spangenburg Castle in Germany.
As an obituary notes, "On emerging from the sick bay he found that General Eisenhower had absolved officers from the duty of escaping because the Germans were unlikely to respect the rules of war. Shand took on such responsiblities as laundry officer and taking down BBC radio broadcasts. The camp was short of food in the later months of the war, but Shand received monthly parcels of books sent out from a shop in Piccadilly, and was able to devote several hours a day to reading history and biography as well as Thackeray and Trollope, for whom he developed a lifelong affection."
He returned to London after liberation, where he married Rosalind. After the war, he went into the wine business, working for Block, Grey and Block, then joining Ellis, Son and Vidler until his retirement. He was also "vice lord lieutenant of East Sussex (1974-92), a deputy lieutenant of the former county of Sussex, and joint master of the Southdown fox hounds (1956-75)." In 1990, Bruce published his memoirs, Previous Engagements. He died at age 89 in 2006.
Queen Camilla
Queen Camilla was born Camilla Rosemary Shand on July 17, 1947 in London. She attended Queen's Gate School, then the Mon Fertile finishing school in Switzerland, and took a course on French literature at the University of London Institute in Paris. She was a debutante in 1965, and has had a lifelong affection for equestrian activities.
She met then-Prince Charles in 1970, and the two dated, but split when Charles joined the Royal Navy in 1973. That same year, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, and they had two children together, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles (see below). Camilla and Charles reportedly began their affair around 1987, and she and Andrew would divorce in 1995. (Charles and Princess Diana's divorce was finalized in 1996.) In 1999, Charles and Camilla appeared in public together for the first time, and in 2003, she moved into Clarence House. In 2005, they wed, 35 years after they first met.
Per her official bio on the royal family's website, "Her Majesty’s 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 assault." She will be crowned Queen Camilla at a coronation ceremony in May alongside King Charles.
Camilla's son: Tom Parker Bowles
With her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla had two children. The eldest, Tom Parker Bowles, was born December 18, 1974, in London. He attended Summer Fields School in Oxford, and then attended Eton College and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduating, he worked as a publicist, before transitioning to a career as a food writer and critic.
"I was really shit at every job I did after university and was fired most of the time," he told T&C in 2019. "I mean food's the one universal experience apart from death. You can be celibate and you can not drink and you can not pay your taxes, but everyone has to eat. Now, you might not like food, but I like that language of food. And what drew it to me is chefs, I love chefs. And it's a world still where you can have a five-hour lunch, in a world where five-hour lunches don't exist anymore."
He's published eight cookbooks over his career, including Let's Eat: Recipes from my Kitchen Notebook and Full English: A Journey Through the British and Their Food.
In 2005, Tom married Sarah Buys. They separated in 2018, and have two children: Lola, born 2007, and Frederick, born 2010. Frederick, who goes by Freddy, will be a page of honor at his grandmother's coronation. Tom is active on Twitter (@tomparkerbowles), and is a regular contributor to Country Life (read his articles here).
Camilla's daughter: Laura Lopes
Camilla and Andrew's second child, Laura Parker Bowles (now Laura Lopes) was born on New Year's Day—January 1, 1978. She attended St Mary's Shaftesbury, a Catholic girls boarding school, then Oxford Brookes University, where she studied History of Art and Marketing. After graduating, she interned at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and then worked for the Space Gallery in London, and subsequently co-founded London's Eleven Gallery.
In 2006, she married Harry Lopes, an accountant turned CEO of Eden Renewables (and former Calvin Klein model). Harry is a scion of the wealthy Astor family; his mother, Sarah Violet Astor, was the daughter of Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever. They have three children: daughter Eliza, born 2008, and twins Gus and Louis, born 2009.
Her daughter, Eliza Lopes, was a bridesmaid at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding:
Gus and Louis will join their cousin Freddy as pages of honor at the coronation.
Camilla's sister: Annabel Elliot (née Shand)
The second of the Shand siblings, Sonia Annabel Shand (she goes by Annabel Elliot, her married name), was born February 2, 1949. At age 23, she married Simon Elliot, son of William Elliot, an Air Chief Marshal of the RAF, and Rosemary Chancellor. Annabel works as an interior designer and antiquities dealer, and she renovated many of King Charles's estates. At the coronation, she will be one of the two ladies in attendance for her sister.
Simon passed away in 2023 at age 82 after a long illness. "He was beyond courageous in his last few months, his family and friends are devastated to lose a man whose middle name was loyalty. He was a fount of common sense and wisdom and it is a great sadness that he has gone so early," a close friend said of his passing.
Simon and Annabel have three children: Ben Elliot (b. 1975), a Conservative Party politician, Alice Irwin (b. 1977), and Catherine Elliot (b. 1981). In 2011, Ben married Mary-Clare Winwood, Steve Winwood's eldest daughter, and they have two sons: Arthur (b. 2012) and Ike (b. 2014). Arthur will be a page of honor at the coronation. Camilla and Charles were front and center at Ben and Mary-Clare's wedding:
In 2003, Alice married Luke Irwin, a Dublin-born rug designer who dropped out of Eton at age 16. A profile of Luke in the Wall Street Journal noted in 2011, "His client list is as diverse as his bespoke offerings, including rock stars and royalty, East End artists, West Country aristocrats and Russian oligarchs." Alice and Luke have two children: Otis, born 2006, and Violet, born 2009. During the pandemic, Alice launched "My Dear New Friend," a letter-writing campaign between children and residents of care homes, supported by her aunt Camilla.
There's not much public information about Annabel's youngest, Catherine Elliot, who also goes by Katie.
Camilla's brother: Mark Shand
The third Shand sibling, Mark Shand, was born June 28, 1951, and he tragically passed away on April 23, 2014 in New York City. He died of "blunt impact head trauma with a skull fracture and subdural hematoma," per New York City's chief medical examiner—which means he died of a serious head injury from a fall.
After his death, Clarence House (the former base of King Charles and Queen Camilla) described Shand as "a man of extraordinary vitality, a tireless campaigner and conservationist whose incredible work through the Elephant Family and beyond remained his focus right up until his death."
During his lifetime, Mark was a travel writer and conservationist, and founded the charity Elephant Family. He married Clio Goldsmith in 1990, and they divorced a few years before his death, in 2009. They had one daughter, Ayesha Shand, born 1995. Ayesha currently works at Hauser-Wirth, alongside Princess Eugenie.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
