Queen Camilla is first royal woman to be accepted as member of London’s elite Garrick Club after nearly 200 years
Queen Camilla has become the first royal woman to be accepted as a member of the elite Garrick Club after it finally accepted female members after 193 years.
The Mail can reveal Her Majesty’s name was proposed and accepted at a meeting today – after she attended in person.
The historically all-male private members’ club, founded in 1831 in London’s West End, had long been under pressure to accept female members and finally capitulated in 2024.
Several high-profile figures, including MI6’s former chief Sir Richard Moore, resigned after details of the membership list were revealed.
Previous votes on the issue failed to upset the status quo, but it was eventually passed with almost 60 percent of the vote.
It is understood the Queen was recommended and appointed and the mandatory 30 signatures were obtained from other members.
Its membership will be officially confirmed in April.
It comes as Camilla hosted a star-studded reception at Clarence House last night for the inaugural Queen’s Reading Room Medal, which was attended by a host of literary legends including Hollywood stars Sigourney Weaver and Stanley Tucci, as well as Jeffrey Archer, Richard Osman, Robert Harris, Lee Child and Jojo Moyes.
Queen Camilla (pictured with King Charles III on March 18) has become the first royal woman to be accepted as a member of the elite Garrick Club after it finally agreed to allow female members after 193 years.
The historically all-male private members’ club, founded in 1831 in London’s West End, had long been under pressure to accept female members and finally capitulated in 2024.
Proud King Charles also attended to support his wife, as did the Duchess of Gloucester.
The royal couple met the award finalists and presented the inaugural National Reading Hero Medal and Local Reading Hero Medal to the winners, Black British Book Festival founder Selina Brown and Liz Waterland, who saved a public library facility.
Launched last year, the medal recognizes ‘Reading Heroes’ who promote books and literature in communities across the UK, working in libraries, schools, homeless shelters, food banks and beyond.
In her speech, the Queen said the success of the online reading community she founded five years ago was ‘beyond anyone’s dreams, especially mine’.
He also thanked the ‘wonderful’ writers who ‘have done so much for all of us’.
‘You and your books really make life better,’ he said.
Buckingham Palace has also announced that it will star in a new BBC film to celebrate the power of reading later this year.
Speaking later, Aliens star Sigourney Weaver revealed she had even signed up for Camilla’s Queen’s Reading Room newsletter.
It comes as Camilla hosted a star-studded reception at Clarence House last night for the launch of the Queen’s Reading Room Medal (Pictured March 25, 2026)
In her speech, the Queen said the success of the online reading community she founded five years ago was ‘beyond anyone’s dreams, especially mine’.
And he added that he had read MM Kay’s The Far Pavilions on the Queen’s recommendation.
He said: ‘I’m very interested in how this grows because you can do the same thing in America, it’s energizing.
‘The thought of it going to children’s children when adults don’t or haven’t read it is sad. Reading is everything. ‘I wouldn’t have a career if I wasn’t a reader.’
The actress added that she was “shocked” by the latest statistics, revealed by Camilla in January, that only one in two adults in the UK read a book a year.
