Rosalind Shand | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rosalind Maud Cubitt (1921-08-11)11 August 1921 London, England |
| Died | 14 July 1994(1994-07-14) (aged 72) Lewes,East Sussex, England |
| Occupation | Charity worker |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Parents |
|
Rosalind Maud Shand (néeCubitt; 11 August 1921 – 14 July 1994) was the daughter ofRoland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. She was the wife of army officer MajorBruce Shand and the mother ofQueen Camilla.[1]
Rosalind Maud Cubitt was born at 16 Grosvenor Street, London, on 11 August 1921,[2] the eldest of the three children born toRoland Calvert Cubitt (1899–1962) and his wifeSonia Rosemary Cubitt (néeKeppel; 1900–1986). Her father was the son ofHenry Cubitt, 2nd Baron Ashcombe, and became 3rdBaron Ashcombe after his death. Rosalind's mother Sonia was the youngest daughter ofGeorge Keppel and his wife,Alice Frederica Keppel (néeEdmonstone).[3]
Rosalind had two younger siblings:Henry Cubitt, who succeeded his father as the 4th Baron Ashcombe, and Jeremy Cubitt, who died in 1958 at the age of 30.[4][5]Her family was the aristocratic and wealthy Cubitt family,[6] which founded the Cubitt construction company.[7] She was a goddaughter ofDame Margaret Greville and inherited some of her fortune.[8]
Rosalind was named by the press as the 1939 'Debutante of the Year'.[9] She had herdebutante ball on 6 July 1939 atHolland House inKensington, London. It was attended by more than a thousand guests includingKing George VI andQueen Elizabeth, andNoël Coward. The ball was the last such event held at the house before it was destroyed during the Second World War.[10][11]
Rosalind met her future husband MajorBruce Middleton Hope Shand (1917–2006), son of English journalistPhilip Morton Shand and his first wifeEdith Marguerite Harrington, at the end of the Second World War. He later retired from the British Army after winning twoMilitary Crosses and being a Germanprisoner of war.[12] They married on 2 January 1946 atSt Paul's Church, Knightsbridge in London.[13][12] The couple bought acountry house,The Laines inPlumpton, East Sussex, and also maintained another house inSouth Kensington.[14][15]
They had three children:[12]
Rosalind worked for an adoption agency before marriage.[16] She volunteered at theChailey Heritage Foundation, which helps young children with disabilities, in the 1960s and 1970s located atNorth Chailey, East Sussex. She worked there as a volunteer for 17 years. Her daughter Camilla opened a new facility there in 2013.[17]
She died atLewes, East Sussex on 14 July 1994 aged 72, having long suffered fromosteoporosis.[18] Her mother Sonia also died from the same disease in 1986.[18] She was survived by her husband, her three children and five grandchildren. Her youngest granddaughter, Ayesha, was born a year after her death.
Following her mother's death, Camilla became a member of the National Osteoporosis Society, which later becameRoyal Osteoporosis Society (a charity dedicated to improving the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of osteoporosis) in 1994 to help raise awareness of the disease, became Patron of the charity in 1997 and was appointed its president in 2001.[19]