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Queen Camilla wore a few favorites from her wardrobe while stepping out for the Founders Day ceremony at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London on Thursday. Pinned to one of her favorite pink Anna Valentine coat dresses was the Lady Jardine Star Brooch.
Featuring eight prominent diamond rays alternating with smaller diamond collets and a central cluster arranged in a floral pattern, the brooch originally belonged to Queen Camilla’s mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth. The exact origins are unknown, but it is believed she either inherited or received it from a woman named Lady Jardine, although no one is quite sure who that is. Either way, the late-Victorian era style piece is now part of the British royal family’s private collection.
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The Queen also carried a clutch from the Launer x Sanderson Bella Collection.
Queen Elizabeth wore the brooch on numerous occasions over the years, including at Royal Ascot in 2019, during several Diamond Jubilee events in 2012, in her 2017 Christmas address, and at a ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 2020.
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Queen Elizabeth wearing the Lady Jardine Star Brooch to the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012.
Queen Camilla has since made the piece her own, wearing it at Royal Ascot in both 2024 and 2025. On Thursday, she paired it with a sprig of fresh oak leaves and acorns pinned beneath it on a light purple outfit as a nod to the occasion.
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Camilla wearing the brooch on day four of Royal Ascot in 2024.
Camilla’s Anna Valentine dress is also likely familiar to royal fans as she wore it to several major events, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018 and Royal Ascot in 2023.
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Camilla, with a different hat and jewelry, in the same Anna Valentine dress at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018.
Also known as Oak Apple Day, the annual ceremony commemorates the founding of the hospital in 1681 and honoring the retired British Army veterans who live there. The event is held on or near May 29 each year, a date that marks both King Charles II’s birthday and his restoration to the throne following his escape after the Battle of Worcester in 1651, when he famously hid in an oak tree to evade capture. In tribute to that escape, both the Chelsea Pensioners and the central gold statue of King Charles II in Figure Court are decorated with oak leaf sprigs during the ceremony.
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Queen Camilla observes during the ceremony.
The pensioners, dressed in their iconic scarlet coats and tricorn hats, march past a visiting member of the royal family during a military parade that serves as the highlight of the veterans’ calendar. Though Oak Apple Day was once an official public holiday in England, Wales, and Ireland until the 1850s, the modern observance is centered on the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
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Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.