The Duchess Of Cornwall

Camilla: "Thank you and the same to you, Mrs. Merkel!"

It is a huge pleasure to be at the Royal Hospital Chelsea today, after the disappointment of not being able to join you in person on Founder’s Day. You were much in my thoughts on 4th June, and I was deeply touched by the wonderful message you sent me.

I know that you have been through a particularly tough time of late, having lost ten Pensioners to COVID-19. I should like to express my heartfelt sympathy to the families of those who have died, and to each of you as you go through the painful process of adjusting to the gap left by those much-loved friends.

As some of you may know, the brilliant writer A. A. Milne for many years lived in a house a few streets away from the Royal Hospital Chelsea. While living there, he wrote his famous poem, “Buckingham Palace”, which my late father (a highly decorated war veteran) delighted in reading to us when we were children. Most of you will be familiar with this verse:

They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace

Christopher Robin went down with Alice

Alice is marrying one of the guards

A soldier’s life is terribly hard, says Alice.

A soldier’s life is terribly hard. For all his apparent light-heartedness, Milne knew what he was talking about: he had fought in the First World War and was injured at the Battle of the Somme.

Now you and your families also know more than most about the challenges and sacrifices of military duty. And you know, too, the extent to which we depend on our soldiers. This has been clearly demonstrated by two recent examples. Firstly, a few weeks ago, we marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day, a day which some of you might remember. We recalled with gratitude the great victory that our Armed Forces won for us. Then, in a very different context, we turned to a younger generation of Servicemen and women as the recent pandemic broke out. Proving themselves your worthy successors, they have helped to build hospitals, establish testing sites, repatriate our citizens, deliver PPE at home and abroad and develop a track and trace application to help combat the spread of the virus. And all the while continuing to assure our Defence at home and abroad.

In times of war and times of peace, whether seen or unseen, the Armed Forces support and strengthen our nation, just as each one of you Chelsea Pensioners did throughout your careers. I should like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have done for us.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are a source of inspiration, reassurance and pride to this country, and as a fellow pensioner I salute you all.

Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall (https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speech/speech-hrh-duchess-cornwall-royal-hospital-chelsea)

Camilla is due to cover a wide range of topics as she undertakes her first-ever radio guest edit on BBC Radio 5 Live’s The Emma Barnett Show on Tuesday July 7.

The duchess will say how her husband, the Prince of Wales, remains in good shape despite catching Covid-19 earlier this year.

In a pre-recorded segment of the show, Camilla will say: “He is probably the fittest man of his age I know. He’ll walk and walk and walk. “He’s like a mountain goat, he leaves everybody miles behind.”

The duchess will also talk about missing her grandchildren during lockdown and how she “shall look forward to the day” she can hug them.

“You’re so excited because you haven’t seen them for three-and-a-half months … Your first reaction is to run up and hug them, and you have to sort of put up your hands. It’s a very odd feeling,” she will say.

On the topic of the coronavirus lockdown, Camilla will talk about her fondness for wearing jeans and how she has familiarised herself with online video conference calling.

She will say: “I’m ashamed to say that I really hated the internet. I didn’t understand it and I thought, ‘what’s the point of this?’.

“Since lockdown, it’s been so brilliant because I’ve been able to communicate with family, my children, my friends.

“But it’s also taught children … otherwise children who aren’t at school what would they have done without it?”

Camilla said she had also been enjoying wearing jeans during lockdown, adding:  “I’ve been very, very happy with my jeans. It will be very hard to get out of them again. I think you get into a sort of way of life, don’t you?”

Her radio feature will also cover domestic violence, her passion to raise awareness about the issue and her involvement with the charity SafeLives.

Speaking about how she became involved with the domestic abuse charity, Camilla will recall hearing a story about a man who used a hammer to kill his wife.

“I don’t think any of us could believe what we were hearing. I could feel the tears starting to drip down my face,” the duchess says.

“It was so moving and so horrific that afterwards, I met her mother, a grandmother who had taken charge of the children.

“I just remember saying to her that ‘I don’t know what I can do, but if there’s anything, I promise you, I’ll try and find a way’. That’s really how it began.”

The house was built between 1825 and 1827 to a design by John Nash. It was commissioned by the Duke of Clarence, who in 1830 became King William IV of the United Kingdom (reigned 1830–1837). He lived there in preference to the adjacent St James's Palace, an ancient Tudor building which he found too cramped.

From William IV, the house passed to his sister Princess Augusta Sophia, and, following her death in 1840, to Queen Victoria's mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. In 1866, it became the home of Queen Victoria's second son Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (also Duke of Edinburgh), until his death in 1900.

Alfred's younger brother Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Queen Victoria's third son, used the house from 1900 until his death in 1942. During his tenure, for a brief period in the 1930s, it was the location of the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies until all universities in London were evacuated in 1939, and the school temporarily relocated to Cambridge.

During World War II, it suffered damage by enemy bombing during The Blitz (1940–41). Following the death of the Duke of Connaught in 1942, it was used by the Red Cross and the St John Ambulance Brigade as their headquarters during the rest of World War II.

Following their marriage in 1947, it became the residence of Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Their daughter, Princess Anne, was born there in 1950.

In 1953, after the death of her father King George VI (d. 6 February 1952), and her accession as Queen Elizabeth II, she moved to Buckingham Palace. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth, and Princess Margaret moved into Clarence House. Also at the start of her widowhood, the Queen Mother purchased the Castle of Mey in Scotland as a summer residence.

Princess Margaret later moved into an apartment in Kensington Palace, whilst the Queen Mother remained at Clarence House and at the Castle of Mey, until her death in March 2002. In 2003, the Prince of Wales moved to Clarence House.

Clarence House is a British royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It is attached to St James's Palace and shares the palace's garden. From 1953 until 2002, it was home to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.[1] It has since been the official residence of Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Clarence House was also the official residence of Prince William from 2003 until April 2011, and of Prince Harry from 2003 until March 2012. It is open to visitors for approximately one month each summer, usually in August (it is currently closed to the public until August 2020). The four-storey house is faced in pale stucco. Over the years, it has undergone extensive remodelling and reconstruction, most notably after the Second World War, and little remains of the original structure as designed by John Nash. Since 2003, the term Clarence House has been used as a metonym for the Prince of Wales's private office. (The term St James's Palace had been used previously.) It is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.