Gun salute marks The Queen’s birthday

Queen Camilla celebrates her 76th birthday today, and it’s her first as Queen.

The occasion was marked with gun salutes in Edinburgh, York, Hillsborough, Cardiff, and London. During the Guard Change at Buckingham Palace, ‘Happy Birthday’ was played.

After @KingsTroopRHA fired a 41 gun salute, the @ColdstreamBand performed Happy Birthday in The Green Park for Her Majesty The Queen. Happy Birthday Ma’am! @BritishArmy @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/9PjprPYHWr

— The Army in London (@ArmyInLondon) July 17, 2023

The @BritishArmy has marked the Queen’s first birthday since the coronation with a traditional gun salute in London 👑

A 41-gun salute by the @KingsTroopRHA Battery was followed by a 62-gun Royal Salute by the Honourable Artillery Company 💂‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/yXs8TqIeVO

— Forces News (@ForcesNews) July 17, 2023

Queen Camilla was born Camilla Rosemary Shand on 17 July 1947 as the daughter of Major Bruce Shand and his wife, The Honourable Rosalind Cubitt, at King’s College Hospital in London. Her mother was the daughter of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe and Sonia Rosemary Keppel.

Camilla met her future husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, in the late 1960s through his younger brother, who worked at her father’s wine firm. Camilla reportedly met Prince Charles in the middle of 1971, and they became close friends and even began seeing each other, although they later broke up. She married Andrew on 4 July 1973, and they had two children together before divorcing in 1995.

She married the then Prince of Wales in 2005 in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall and a religious service of blessing at St George’s Chapel. As a result, Camilla became known as The Duchess of Cornwall. She was officially The Princess of Wales but chose not to use the title as it remained strongly associated with Charles’s first wife, Diana.