It was the last great ball of peacetime: jewels, ball gowns, tailed escorts and a never-ending flow of champagne.
The guests of honor were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but in the crowd was the young student Jack Kennedy, who would one day become the legendary president of the United States.
And it was already dawn when the last stragglers left.
And all for a surprised and somewhat bewildered 17-year-old girl, Rosalind Maud Cubitt.
Rosalind Maud Shand (née Cubitt), daughter of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe, was the mother of Queen Camilla. Here, she is photographed in Bystander magazine in 1939, the year she debuted.
Rosalind Shand photographed with her daughter Camilla in March 1965.
Major Bruce Shand married Rosalind Cubitt at St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, in 1946.
The world had come to pay homage to this timid sprig of aristocracy, but although the spotlight of society briefly shone upon her, she never made a name for herself.
That honor would later fall to his daughter Camilla, now our queen.
However, on that hot July night in 1939, it was Rosalind who was the center of attention, although she, mother Sonya, considered by some to be the illegitimate daughter of King Edward VII, was a close rival on that and many other nights. .
For extravagance, Sonia could easily match the monarch they called Tum-Tum and was determined to spare no expense in launching her daughter into society.
She had married the wealthy Lord Ashcombe, although there were already cracks in the marriage that would end in divorce.
The ball was held at Holland House, located on 50 private acres in the most expensive area of London, the last great mansion in the metropolis.
The war clouds were already gathering, but no one realized when they arrived that night that, once the last glass of champagne was emptied, British high society would never be the same. Holland House itself would be destroyed by firebombs during the Blitz.
‘Twenty-four hours of splendor,’ wrote MP and journalist ‘Chips’ Channon, ‘of old-world magnificence!
‘Immediately we arrived we found ourselves in a bind: pink debutantes, tiara-wearing widows, ambassadors, royals, all in a crowd the likes of which I had never seen. You couldn’t dance, you couldn’t move… in the end I found Infanta María Cristina [daughter of the king of Spain] and Princess Cecilia of Prussia [daughter of Prussia’s Crown Prince] and I took them to a room where we had champagne.
‘All London was present: I found the Queen of Spain on a sofa, while the Queen of England was with Lord Rochester. She was dressed in white and wearing a crown, but in her attempt to help the King [post-Abdication] she has become too prominent and steals his thunder.
Legendary conductor Ambrose brought his musicians to play all night, and Holland House’s huge gardens were illuminated for guests to wander around.
Meanwhile, where was the star of the show? Rosalind Cubitt may have been the reason Sonia’s mother threw the ball, but she was not considered important enough to attend the pre-ball dinner Sonia hosted.
Among the guests at their table were the king and queen, the American ambassador Joe Kennedy, Noel Coward, the colossally wealthy Maharaja of Jaipur and, unfortunately, the well-meaning and entirely innocent Prince Frederick of Prussia, a Cambridge student who After a few weeks, he will be interned and sent to a Canadian detention camp for the duration.
Meanwhile, young Rosalind was entertained by an old friend of her mother’s, Maria Denison, whose husband had commanded the Royal Yacht, and by an affable old general, Desmond Beale-Browne.
Beale-Browne had commanded the Royal Lancers, who now counted 22-year-old Lieutenant Bruce Shand among their young officers.
The story does not tell whether Bruce and the shy Rosalind met for the first time that night, or whether she danced with the young Jack Kennedy, in London, during a break from her studies at Harvard. But by the time peace was declared in 1945, Bruce and Rosaland were married.
Although many of those present took away memories of the lavishness of her presentation ball, it may all have been too much for the girl herself.
For when it came time to launch her daughter Camilla into society in 1965, and although she was wealthy enough, she chose instead a cocktail party at Searcys catering halls in Knightsbridge, followed by a potluck dance in Surrey.
Among the guests were also debutantes Angela Nevill, who would date Prince Charles before Camilla; Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, whose daughter Cressida Bonas was dating Prince Harry; Miranda Seymour, who would later become an acclaimed writer; and Sally Farmiloe, later a Howards Way actress but best remembered for her headline-grabbing affair with writer Jeffrey Archer around the time of her libel trial.
George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive at the French embassy in 1939
Joseph Kennedy, ambassador to the Court of St James, poses with his son John ‘Jack’ Kennedy, who later became president of the United States.
The diarist Henry ‘Chips’ Channon who attended the 1939 ball at Holland House
Deb’s last name on the guest list was Sarah Corbett, whose father Arthur (later Lord Rowallan) would go down in history as the man who married April Ashley, one of the early pioneers of sex reassignment.
Each of them made more headlines than the seemingly unremarkable Camilla Shand, until she rose to fame in 1992 when she was revealed to be Prince Charles’ secret love. Since then she, of course, has been celebrated as a successful and highly respected queen consort.
But he never had a king and queen present at his coming-out ball, nor a future president of the United States. Mother Rosalind, who died of osteoporosis in 1994, will always have that special memory.
After their last waltz, they turned out the lights. And London remained dark for almost six long years.
