Mark Shand

Mark Roland Shand was born on June 28, 1951, and died on April 23, 2014. He was an English travel writer and conservationist. He was the brother of Camilla, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom, and a member of the Shand family. His parents were Major Bruce Shand (1917–2006) and Rosalind Cubitt (1921–1994). Rosalind was the daughter of the 3rd Baron Ashcombe and Sonia Rosemary Keppel, who was the daughter of Alice Keppel.

Shand received his early education at St Ronan's School in Kent and subsequently attended Milton Abbey School in Dorset. He was expelled from Milton Abbey for allegedly smoking cannabis. Following this incident, his father sent him to Australia, where he worked in various jobs, including as a jackaroo on a station and as a guard at an opal mine. He later returned to London and worked as a porter at Sotheby's. During his youth, he co-founded a business selling Cartier jewelry with Harry Fane, the son of the 15th Earl of Westmorland. He also dated Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in the mid-1970s.

In 1990, Shand married Clio Goldsmith, a French former actress and member of the Goldsmith family. They resided in Rome and had a daughter named Ayesha, born on October 1, 1994. The couple divorced in 2010. Shand served as a godfather to one of Jemima Goldsmith's sons.

Shand's career as a travel writer began with the publication of his first book, *Skulduggery*, in 1987, which was based on an expedition to Irian Jaya in Indonesia. He authored several other books, including *Travels on My Elephant* (1992), which became a bestseller and received the Travel Writer of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 1992; *Queen of the Elephants* (1996); and *River Dog: A Journey Down the Brahmaputra* (2003). His work often focused on elephants, and he appeared in numerous BBC and National Geographic documentaries related to his journeys. His writings reflected an interest in Indian culture and Hinduism, and he expressed a strong admiration for Indo-Nostalgic themes.

Shand was actively involved in wildlife conservation, particularly with the Asian elephant. He co-founded the charity Elephant Family in 2002. His book *Travels on My Elephant* recounts his experiences with "Tara," an elephant in India, who inspired the founding of the charity. He also authored the book and appeared in the BBC documentary *Queen of the Elephants*, which highlighted the life of Parbati Barua, the first female mahout in recent times, and won the Prix Litteraire d'Amis award.

In recognition of his conservation efforts, Shand served as a patron of Anti-Slavery International and was a member of the Royal Geographical Society. He held the honorary position of Chief Wildlife Warden of Assam. In 2014, he was named Conservationist of the Year and received the Fragile Rhino award from The Perfect World Foundation. He was scheduled to attend the award ceremony as a guest of honor but died unexpectedly before the event.

On April 23, 2014, Shand sustained a serious head injury after falling outside the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan, New York City, after lighting a cigarette. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital and later died that day. His nephews Tom Parker Bowles and Ben Elliot traveled to New York to escort his body back to the United Kingdom. A private funeral was held at Holy Trinity Church in Stourpaine, Dorset, on May 1, 2014.

Posthumously, several honors and memorials were established. The Balipara Foundation in Assam created the Mahout Mark Shand Recognition for Elephant Management award in 2014. His former school, St Ronan's in Kent, dedicated an all-weather pitch called the Shandy-Ba in his memory. The Elephant Family launched the Mark Shand Memorial Fund to support elephant conservation efforts, and the charity established the Mark Shand Memorial Asian Elephant Learning Centre at Kaziranga Discovery Park in India, inaugurated in November 2015. King Charles III and Queen Camilla became joint royal presidents of the Elephant Family charity in 2014.