How her hero dad earned his spurs with the Lancers

DESPITE winning a Military Cross for valour, Major Bruce Shand was a modest and self-effacing man who chose not to speak about his wartime exploits until his grandchildren were born.

It took his daughter, now Queen Camilla, to persuade him to write a book, Previous Engagements, about his time in uniform. It was published in 1990 and she said this was ‘a huge load off his mind to be able to tell people about it’.

Major Shand, who died in June 2006, was commissioned into the 12th Royal Lancers in 1937 after graduating from Sandhurst.

In 1940 he found himself in France facing the Germans in their drive toward the sea. Pulling back with his men to the coast, he narrowly avoided capture before evacuation from Dunkirk.

The citation for his Military Cross speaks of Shand’s ‘skill and great daring’ and how, by ‘the fearless manoeuvring of his troop, he covered the withdrawal of a column in the face of fire from four enemy tanks’.

Major Shand also saw action in North Africa and in the battle of El Alamein was ordered to slip through enemy lines on a reconnaissance mission.

Confronted by a German motorised column that engaged his men with heavy fire, he covered the withdrawal of the 1st/6th Rajputana Rifles and organised the evacuation of 20 armoured cars, which would otherwise have fallen into enemy hands. Again his huge valour was recognised by others, this time with a recommendation that he be awarded a Bar to his MC, pictured. The citation said he had proved himself a cavalry leader of ‘the first order’.

He was later introduced to Winston Churchill, who admired Major Shand’s medal – and commented on how thin he was. In November 1942 his luck finally ran out when he was captured by retreating German forces. His radio operator was killed along with his driver as they attempted to flee. And as he climbed out of their burning vehicle, Major Shand was himself shot in the knee. He was taken to Germany and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Spangenberg Castle, Hesse. After returning home he married Rosalind Cubitt, the daughter of Lord Ashcombe. Camilla was the first of their three children.