Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall the patron, president and a member of numerous charities and organisations. Since 1994, she has taken action on osteoporosis, earning honours and awards. She has also raised awareness in areas including rape and sexual abuse, literacy, animal welfare and poverty. Camilla Rosemary Shand was born at King's College Hospital, London, on 17 July 1947. She grew up in The Laines – an 18th-century country house in Plumpton, East Sussex – and a three-storey house in South Kensington, her family's second home. Her parents were British Army officer turned businessman Major Bruce Shand (1917–2006) and his wife, Rosalind ("née" Cubitt; 1921–1994).
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in January 1995 at the High Court Family Division in London. The divorce was finalised in March 1995. Camilla and Prince Charles reportedly met in mid-1971. Andrew Parker Bowles had ended his relationship with Camilla in 1970 and was courting Princess Anne, Charles's sister. Though they both belonged to the same social circle and occasionally attended the same events, they had not formally met. Their biographer Brandreth states the couple did not first meet at a polo match, as it has been commonly believed. Instead, they first met at the home of their friend Lucia Santa Cruz, who formally introduced