A new book reveals how Queen Camilla fought off an attempted assault as a teenager. Photo / Getty Images
Queen Camilla was the victim of an attempted sexual assault as a schoolgirl and fought off her attacker with the heel of her shoe, it has been claimed.
The Queen, who has campaigned against domestic and sexual abuse during her time in the British royal family, was “16 or 17” when a man tried to grope her on a train, according to a new book.
The young Camilla Shand is said to have fought off her attacker and reported the incident to the police, leading to his arrest.
An account of the episode has been published in a new book, Power and the Palace by Valentine Low.
In an interview, Guto Harri, then the communications director for Boris Johnson during his time as London mayor, relayed the story as told by Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall at the time, to Johnson in 2008.
Harri claimed that the incident inspired the Queen’s campaigning work, including officially opening rape crisis centres.
The book records that Johnson was “raving” about the then duchess after the meeting, with Harri saying: “He was making guttural noises about how much he admired and liked her.
“But the serious conversation they had was about her being the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a schoolgirl. She was on a train going to Paddington – she was about 16, 17 – and some guy was moving his hand further and further ...”
At this point, Johnson is said to have asked her what happened next. Harri recounted: “She replied: ‘I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.’
“She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me,’ and he was arrested.”
At the time, Johnson wanted to open three rape crisis centres. The duchess opened two out of the three.
“Nobody asked why the interest, why the commitment,” said Harri. “But that’s what it went back to.”
The Queen has never told the story in public herself. She is understood to recall it, but has chosen not to share it as part of her charity work so as not to draw attention to herself over the victims with whom she works.
It is believed that she viewed it as an unpleasant experience, but it is not the specific inspiration for her later work with survivors of domestic or sexual abuse.
In a speech in 2021, she asked an audience at the Women of the World festival if they “dared [to] even dream of a world without rape and sexual abuse? Or were we too indoctrinated into believing that violence against women is normal, just ‘one of those things’, part and parcel of being born female”.
Quoting a survey that found 86% of young women in the UK had been sexually harassed in a public place, and that 96% of those did not report the incidents, she added: “It is, as almost all women know, a deeply disturbing experience to be sexually harassed.
“Yet somehow, a culture of silence has grown up, in which these women conceal their experiences of such offences.
“Why? There are, of course, many explanations. But there is one significant reason on which we are focusing today. Shame.”
Among the Queen’s personal contributions to the violence against women sector is the Wash Bag Project, started in 2013 to provide toiletries to women who visited Sexual Assault Referral Centres as a gesture of dignity and support.
In November 2022, one of her first major events as Queen was hosting representatives from the sector for a reception at Buckingham Palace.
She is patron of UK charity Safe Lives, and also makes a point of visiting local organisations supporting women while travelling overseas.
Power and the Palace by Valentine Low will be published on September 11.
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