The King was there. And so was JFK. Yet this party fit for a Queen was in honour of Camilla’s Mum! It was the last society dance of all before London turned out the lights…

It was the last great dance of peacetime – jewels, ball gowns, escorts in tailcoats and a never-ending flow of champagne.

Guests of honor were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, but among the crowd was the young student Jack Kennedy, who would one day become the legendary President of the United States.

And it was dawn before the last stragglers left.

And all this for a surprised and somewhat bewildered 17-year-old girl, Rosalind Maud Cubitt.

Rosalind Shand pictured 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 tribute to this shy branch of aristocracy, but despite the spotlight of society briefly shining on her, she would never make a name for herself.

That honor would later go to her daughter Camilla – now our queen.

Yet on that hot July evening in 1939, it was Rosalind who was the center of attention – although, as some said of King Edward VII’s illegitimate daughter, she, Mother Sonia, was a close rival on that and many other evenings.

When it came to flamboyance, Sonia easily rivaled the monarch they called Tum-Tum, and she was determined that no expense should be spared as she launched 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, set in 50 acres of private grounds in the most expensive part of London, the last grand mansion in the metropolis.

The clouds of war were already gathering, but no one realized when they arrived that evening that high society in Britain would never be the same once the last glass of champagne had been emptied. Holland House itself would be bombed to destruction during the Blitz.

“Twenty-four hours of splendor,” wrote MP and diarist “Chips” Channon, “of old-world splendor!

‘Immediately we arrived we were in trouble – pink debutantes, be-tiara widows, ambassadors, royalty – all in a crowd like I’ve never seen. You couldn’t dance, you couldn’t move… finally I found the Infanta Maria Cristina [daughter of the king of Spain] and Princess Cecilie of Prussia [daughter of Prussia’s Crown Prince] and I led them to a room where we drank some champagne.

‘All London was there – I found the Queen of Spain on a sofa, while the Queen of England was with Lord Rochester. She was dressed in white and wore a crown – but in her attempt to help the king [post-Abdication] she has become too prominent and is stealing his thunder.”

Legendary bandleader Ambrose brought his musicians to play all night long, and the enormous Holland House gardens were lit up for guests to wander around.

Meanwhile, where was the star of the show? Rosalind Cubitt may have been the reason her mother Sonia threw the ball, but she was not considered important enough to attend the pre-prom dinner that Sonia threw.

Among the guests at her table were the King and Queen, the American Ambassador Joe Kennedy, Noel Coward, the colossally wealthy Maharaja of Jaipur and, unfortunately, the well-intentioned and completely innocent Prince Frederick of Prussia, a Cambridge student who, within a few interned for weeks and taken to a Canadian prison camp for the duration.

Meanwhile, young Rosalind was entertained by an old friend of her mother, Maria Denison, whose husband had commanded the royal yacht, and a genial old general, Desmond Beale-Browne.

Beale-Browne had commanded the Royal Lancers, which now counted 22-year-old Lieutenant Bruce Shand among their young officers.

History does not tell whether Bruce and the shy Rosalind saw each other for the first time that evening – or whether they danced in London with the young Jack Kennedy during a break from his studies at Harvard. But when peace was declared in 1945, Bruce and Rosaland married.

While many attendees reminisced about the opulence of her coming out ball, it may have all been a bit 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 opted instead for a cocktail party in the catering rooms of Searcys near Knightsbridge, followed by a shared dance in Surrey.

Guests included fellow debutants Angela Nevill, who dated Prince Charles before Camilla; Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, whose daughter Cressida Bonas is said to be dating Prince Harry; Miranda Seymour, who would later become an acclaimed writer; and Sally Farmiloe, later a Howards Way actress but best known for her high-profile affair with writer Jeffrey Archer around the time of his 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 would later become President of the United States

Diarist Henry ‘Chips’ Channon who attended the 1939 ball at Holland House

Deb’s last name on the guest list was that of 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 gender reassignment.

Each of these made more headlines than the seemingly unremarkable Camilla Shand – until she burst into the spotlight in 1992 when she was exposed as Prince Charles’ secret love. Since then, of course, she has been celebrated as a successful and highly regarded Queen Consort.

But she never had a king and queen attend her coming out dance, or a future American president. Mother Rosalind, who died of osteoporosis in 1994, would always cherish that special memory.

After her last waltz they turned out the lights. And London remained dark for almost six long years.