Queen Camilla Makes Debut with Her Dad's Military Regiment in Special Brooch from Queen Elizabeth's Collection

The Queen visited the Royal Lancers for the first time as Colonel-in-Chief, a role last held by the late Queen Elizabeth

Queen Camilla is kicking off the work with a royal duty connected to her late father.

On April 22, the Queen, 76, visited the Royal Lancers at their base in Catterick Garrison for the first time since becoming the Colonel-in-Chief of the British Army regiment in June 2023. The appointment to the unit is especially sentimental because Queen Camilla’s late father, Major Bruce Shand, served with the 12th Lancers during World War II and received two Military Crosses, including for gallantry in battle.

Queen Camilla's outfit paid tribute to their military uniform. She wore a navy blue dress by Fiona Clare with chain mail on the shoulders, a bright red collar and gold buttons, just like the Royal Lancers. She completed the look with a red beret with feathers and the regiment’s skull and crossbones cap badge.

At Trooping the Colour in June 2023, Queen Camilla opted for a similar military-inspired ensemble nodding to her role as ceremonial Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.

Related: King Charles Attends Church on What Would Have Been Queen Elizabeth’s 98th Birthday

Queen Camilla also accessorized for her Royal Lancers debut with a sparkling brooch of the regiment's skull and crossbones symbol, a piece straight from Queen Elizabeth's jewelry collection.

The late Queen was long affiliated with the Royal Lancers and was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the unit’s precursor, the 16th/5th Lancers, on her 21st birthday in 1947. She was linked to the reconnaissance regiment until her death in September 2022.

The Royal Lancers and their antecedent units were so closely associated with Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother that they were renamed the Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths' Own) in 2017.

Queen Elizabeth's daughter-in-law Queen Camilla was announced as the new honorary colonel in June 2023.

Queen Camilla was welcomed to the Royal Lancers’ base with a military salute, inspected 152 soldiers on parade and gave a brief speech. The royal shared her pride in being Colonel-in-Chief and quoted her father’s memoir, Previous Engagements, about when he joined the regiment in 1937.

" 'Everyone was very welcoming and the atmosphere was relaxed...I was taken under the wing of the the Adjutant, as nice a man as ever lived and a quietly efficient solider. I was profoundly indebted to him as he not only pulled me out of various scrapes, without necessarily informing the Colonel, but also judiciously handed me over to certain senior NCOs, who took my education in hand and tactfully but firmly directed my floundering steps. They were very competent nannies with a decidedly un-nannylike capacity for beer,' " Queen Camilla said, quoting her father’s memoir.

She quipped, "Today, 87 years later, I am delighted to see that the atmosphere amongst the Lancers remains welcoming and relaxed and that you still have a very nice, quietly efficient Adjutant... although I shan’t ask about the NCOs capacity for beer!"

Pointing to how the Royal Lancers are preparing for operational tours to Poland, Kosovo and Cyprus, she said she was glad they could gather today.

"My father described the Regiment as a 'highly efficient entity, highly skilled and full of personalities.' I have no doubt that your upcoming deployments will be characteristically successful and will only add to our Regiment’s rich history," she said. "The Lancers have always struck me for their family spirit, whose comfort and support I experienced as a daughter of the Regiment, and I’m delighted to see so many families and members of the Old Comrades Association here today. Particularly now, as so many of your loved ones look to deploy overseas."

Related: King Charles Gives a Smile as He's Spotted in London amid Cancer Treatment with Queen Camilla

"As you look towards a deployment of challenge and complexity, I know this fierce Lancers camaraderie will be replicated as you strive to make our world a safer lace," she continued to conclude. "I wish you all godspeed over the coming months, the greatest of good fortune and a very safe return."

In a march past that followed, the Queen got to see past and present armored vehicles, including models that her late father would have commanded. King Charles’ wife then connected with families and members of the Old Comrades Association, the Royal Lancer’s social group.

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Queen Camilla presented five Buchan Medals to serving and retired Lancers, recognizing contributions to the efficiency of honor of the regiment over an extended period. She then headed to the Officers’ Mess to meet Major (Retd) Phil Watson, author of Their Greatest Hour, which tells the story of the 21-day saga where the 12th Lancers guarded the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force’s withdrawal from Dunkirk in 1940. Queen Camilla’s father was later awarded a Military Cross for his bravery in battle, and she wrote the foreword to the book.

The Queen viewed her late father’s tunic and looked with love at a photo of him alongside fellow Royal Lancer veterans during a dinner in 1992. Major Shand died in 2006 at age 89, having attended his daughter’s wedding to the future King Charles the year prior.

Queen Camilla signed a visitor’s book on her way out and left Catterick Garrison through a guard of honor and street-lining procession.

The Queen has been a steady presence and continued with a busy royal workload while her husband, 75, postpones public-facing duties while receiving cancer treatment. On April 21, the royal couple was photographed driving to church at Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral Castle in Scotland, on what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s 98th birthday.

"She is his strength and stay like [Prince Philip] was for the late Queen," a palace insider previously told PEOPLE about how Queen Camilla is a unique strength to King Charles amid his cancer treatment. "She will be great. She will rally him, she will buoy him. She is amazing. She equips him to do the job he has to do."

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