The Duchess of Cornwall meets Mala Breeze and her dog Flora during a reception for the 160th anniversary of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Photo / Getty Images
The Duchess of Cornwall meets Mala Breeze and her dog Flora during a reception for the 160th anniversary of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Photo / Getty Images
As the Duchess of Cornwall turns 75 on Sunday, her public profile has never been greater.
But despite taking on an increasing workload as she prepares to one day become Queen Consort, aides say it is the work she does behind the scenes, the unseen acts of kindness, that perhaps best illustrate the real Camilla.
The Duchess is no great fan of showing up at events simply to be photographed, and hates talking about herself, according to those close to her.
Instead, she wants to know what she can do to help and is more than happy to get on with that privately, with "no fanfare and no fuss".
Harry Parker, 38, a former soldier who lost both his legs in Afghanistan, credits the Duchess with changing his life thanks to a candid private chat at a time when all else seemed lost.
Parker was just 26 and serving as a captain in the 4th Battalion of The Rifles in Afghanistan when he stepped on an IED on his way back to base in 2009.
He was lucky to survive after the device instantly blew off his left leg and irreparably damaged his right, which had to be amputated.
It was during his recuperation at Headley Court, Surrey, where he underwent a year-long rehabilitation programme, that the Duchess, his battalion's Royal Colonel, paid a solo visit.
Over tea and biscuits, the Duchess had an hour-long meeting with the injured soldiers from her regiment, discussing their career prospects and giving each of them a bottle of whisky.
Parker, the son of retired General Sir Nick Parker, former Commander of the British Army, gave her a print of a painting he had done on tour in Iraq in 2007.
The Duchess subsequently wrote to suggest he take some classes at The Royal Drawing School (TRDS), co-founded by her husband, Prince Charles, in 2000.
"I remember her visit so clearly and the one made by the Prince when I'd just come out of surgery at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham," Parker told Country Life magazine.
"It was a great morale boost to know they were rooting for us."
Parker took the Duchess's advice and joined a life-drawing class at TRDS, later taking a postgraduate drawing course and going on to become its deputy director and director of education, as well as an author.
Camilla has long visited injured soldiers
Royal sources say the visit to Headley Court was not out of the ordinary, and that the Duchess, who later inherited the role of Colonel in Chief of the Rifles from the Duke of Edinburgh, has long visited injured soldiers from her regiment, writing to families of those who died.
"She likes to do things," one said. "She is someone who wants to know what she can actually do rather than just show up and be photographed."
Domestic violence is another cornerstone of the Duchess's work and again, an area in which she ploughs on behind the scenes, making private visits to crisis centres where it is not possible to take an entourage.
"She keeps in touch with many of the victims she meets," one aide said. "She always follows up."
When the Duchess attended a Big Lunch Platinum Jubilee event in Manchester, she found herself seated alongside a man called George who, like her, was about to turn 75. Later, she got his details and made sure she sent him a birthday card.
As president of Maggie's, a cancer charity with 24 centres in the UK and three abroad, she is on a personal crusade to visit every one, for no other reason that she genuinely cares.
The Duchess has let it be known that she will carry on speaking about the issues closest to her heart, such as domestic violence, when her husband becomes King.
One particular aspect of violence against women that concerns her is that of coercive control.
In her only newspaper interview for her 75th birthday she told the Daily Mail: "You can have someone who appears such a charming individual, that nice, smiley man who is lovely to everybody ... to your friends, to your family ... And we all know one, don't we?
"Fortunately this is an issue that is being addressed and is going to the courts. No one would listen before. Now they realise that it is a crime."
In an indication of how she envisages her role as Queen Consort, the Duchess has said that she can only throw herself behind a cause if she truly believes in it and won't be accepting patronages for their own sake.
"I can only do things that I feel quite passionately about. I'm not a natural actress. That's why I take on only patronages I love," she said.
The Duchess of Cornwall has vowed to emulate her late father-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh, by abiding by his motto to 'look up and look out, say less, do more'. Photo / Getty Images
Closer to home, she is known among staff for remembering birthdays and anniversaries, and giving her protection officers thank-you gifts. "Small things but remarkably thoughtful," one said. "It is easy to see why they have such a loyal and long-serving staff."
Only last week, the Duchess vowed to emulate her late father-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh, by abiding by his motto to "look up and look out, say less, do more".
Not that she's scared of speaking up and laying down the law when required.
"Families don't sit down any longer, do they, and have dinner. Because I am ancient, in the old days we all sat down [to eat]," she says. "Now everyone is on their devices. It just makes me quite cross! People take those flipping phones [with them to the table]! You have to take them away from them!"
