Queen Camilla has said she is ‘doing much better’ but ‘still has a bit of a cough.
The royal, 77, spoke to guests at a Booker Prize reception at Clarence House today where she said she was ‘on the mend’.
It comes after she missed Remembrance Sunday service due to a chest infection.
However, she will not be joining King Charles at tomorrow’s star-studded global premier of Gladiator II at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square.
The Queen will. however, attend a Palace reception with Charles on Wednesday to celebrate the TV and film industry, but she is not expected to be present for the entirety of the engagement.
It’s believed the changes to her diary have been made to protect her and prioritise her recovery, with royal medics keen to ensure she does not suffer any setbacks.
Queen Camilla has said she is ‘doing much better’ but ‘still has a bit of a cough
Queen Camilla talks with Charlotte Wood during a reception for the Booker Prize Foundation
The Queen will. however, attend a Palace reception with Charles on Wednesday to celebrate the TV and film industry, but she is not expected to be present for the entirety of the engagement. From left: Yael van der Wouden, Gaby Wood, Rachel Kushner, Anne Michaels, Queen Camilla, Charlotte Wood, Percival Everett, Samantha Harvey, and Edmund de Waal during a reception for the Booker Prize Foundation at Clarence House
Queen Camilla has said she is ‘doing much better’ but ‘still has a bit of a cough.
The royal, 77, spoke to guests at a Booker Prize reception at Buckingham Palace today where she said she was ‘on the mend
The Queen’s illness came shortly after she joined her husband on a spa break in India, following a 10-day tour of Australia and Samoa.
A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace confirmed Their Majesties had a short, private stopover in India to help break the long journey back from Samoa.
Camilla’s husband King Charles led the nation in remembering Britain’s war dead, placing a wreath at the Cenotaph as crowds including military veterans looked on.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen had to stay away from public Remembrance events to ensure she made a full recovery from her chest infection and to protect others from the illness.
Camilla is said to have dearly wanted to pay tribute in person to the nation’s fallen servicemen and women last weekend – only to be denied.
The service at the Cenotaph is an important fixture in the royal calendar and holds deep personal meaning for the Queen.
She has official connections to the armed forces, as well as an emotional closeness due to the military service of her war hero late father Major Bruce Shand, who died aged 89 in June 2006.
He had joined the 12th Lancers as a second lieutenant in January 1937, before becoming a troop leader of ‘A’ Squadron and then a lieutenant in 1940.
He served during the Second World War in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force and was awarded the Military Cross in July 1940 after helping cover the withdrawal of forces from Dunkirk.
He was then sent to North Africa as part of the 7th Armoured Division in September, as a captain, and won his second MC in January 1942.
Though missing out this year, Queen Camilla watched last November’s Remembrance Sunday commemorations alongside the Princess of Wales
Later that year, in November, he was wounded in Egypt during the Battle of El Alamein and taken captive as a prisoner of war, before later escaping then returning to England at the war’s end in 1945.
He retired from the armed forces in April 1947 due to disability and was given the honorary rank of major.
During the battle in which he had been wounded, two of Major Shand’s crewmen were killed – Sgt Charles Francis and Cpl Edward Plant.
In 2006, Camilla – then the Duchess of Cornwall – visited Egypt alongside her husband Charles and laid flowers at the two men’s graves.
Major Shand had written a book in 1990 about his Second War War experiences, dedicated to his grandsons and based on letters and a diary he penned at the time.
These accounts had been sent to England via the Red Cross before being kept in the Historical Section of the War Office until 1970.
Camilla read extracts from the book at an event marking VE Day in May 2020, including his memories of the 1942 battle in which his two comrades died and also of when he escaped capture three years later and met US soldiers before returning to the UK.
She said: ‘My father was a soldier in the war and we could never get him to talk about it.
‘But when the grandchildren came along, he started talking about it and we got him to write a small book about it.
‘I think it was a huge load off his mind to be able to tell people about it.’
And in April this year, the Queen paid a trip to meet members of her father’s old Lancers regiment at their base in Catterick, North Yorkshire – her first visit there since being appointed as their Colonel-in-Chief.
Camilla’s husband Charles and his son William were among those in the capital taking part in Sunday’s two-minute silence at 11am to honour those who died in conflict, with similar events taking place nationwide.
And Princess Kate carried out her second consecutive day of royal duties for the first time since it was revealed earlier this year she was being treated for cancer.
Wearing a black, military-style jacket, she could be seen wearing her traditional three poppies as she joined the nation in two minutes of silence.
The touching tribute remembers her great-grandmother’s three brothers, who all lost their lives in the First World War.
The Princess appeared emotional as she quietly closed her eyes in remembrance, bowing her head in respect.
She was standing alongside the Duchess of Edinburgh, with Sophie seen to place a tender hand on Catherine’s shoulder as the pair returned indoors afterwards.
The Royal British Legion’s parade involved 10,000 veterans, representing 326 different armed forces and civilian organisations.
And thousands of people lined Whitehall for the annual event, including a two-minute silence at 11am, while current Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was joined by eight former PMs to lay wreaths.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in the Second World War and the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Kosovo.
It also comes alongside the 75th anniversary of Nato and the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale between the UK and France.