Cheers for Camilla on her first royal duty since getting the Queen's backing

8 February 2022, 11:30 | Updated: 8 February 2022, 14:17

Camilla embarked on her first royal duty since the Queen said she wanted her to become Queen Consort. Picture: Alamy

By Will Taylor

Camilla has made her first public engagement since the Queen backed her to become Charles's Queen Consort.

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The Duchess of Cornwall visited a primary school in Bath, Somerset, in her first royal duty since the Queen made her "sincere wish" public.

The monarch kicked off her Platinum Jubilee celebrations by saying she wanted her daughter-in-law to become Queen Camilla when Charles ascends to the throne.

The duchess joined three-year-olds in a Language for Life class in an early years room, and 10-year-olds who were planting trees for the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative at Roundhill Primary School.

She was greeted by pupils waving the Union Jack as she arrived, and she smiled and spoke to them.

Camilla also met children who made smoothies, stopped by a reading group and took in a maths class. She is the patron of a Bath charity, the St John’s Foundation, which began a plan to help children with education as they prepare for secondary school.

The Queen said in a message to Charles on Saturday: “I remain eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me.

"And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service."

It had previously been suggested Camilla would be known as Princess Consort.

The wife of a king would usually become Queen Consort automatically and only a change in the law would stop that happening.

It was said she did not intend to take the title when she married Charles 17 years ago – after years of negative headlines blaming her for the breakdown of his marriage to Diana.

The public mood of her has shifted over time and she has slowly adopted a more prominent role within the royal family.