Samantha Cameron's early life
Born to Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet, and Annabel Jones on April 18, 1971, Samantha grew up on a 300-acre estate in north Lincolnshire.
Her family has links to the aristocracy, with research into her ancestry showing she is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Nell Gwyn, the mistress of Charles II. She is also a great-granddaughter of Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Berkeley Sheffield.
She was privately educated – first at The School of St Helen & St Katharine in Oxfordshire, then at the esteemed Marlborough College in Wiltshire. After completing an art foundation course, Samantha enrolled at Bristol Polytechnic – now UWE – to do a degree course in Fine Art.
Samantha Cameron's marriage to David Cameron
It was while she was a student that she met the then-25-year-old David Cameron. She was close friends with his little sister Clare, and though the pair had met on numerous occasions, it wasn’t until a holiday in Tuscany in 1992 – the 30th wedding anniversary celebrations of David and Clare’s parents – that romance blossomed.
The couple wed four years later, in 1996 – by which time she had been made creative director of Smythson, the upmarket Bond Street stationery company. In 2002, they welcomed their first child Ivan, who was born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
They went on to have two more children, Nancy, born in January 2004, and Arthur, born in February 2006. Sadly, in 2009 Ivan passed away in hospital aged six.
In 2010 – just before David’s election campaign – announced the happy news that they were expecting their fourth child, a girl named Florence, who arrived in August 2010.
Samantha Cameron's career
Samantha served as Creative Director at British accessories brand Smythson of Bond Street, from 1997 until May 2010, which won her a British Glamour Magazine Award for Best Accessory Designer in 2009. After David became Prime Minister, she took on a part-time creative consultancy role at the company.
In 2017 Samantha founded Cefinn, a contemporary womenswear brand based in London. The name is an acronym of her four children's names.
Widely regarded as a style icon, Samantha served on the judging panel for the Vogue Fashion Fund from 2011 to 2015. She was also named in Tatler's Top 10 Best Dressed List in 2013 and Vanity Fair two years later.
As for her charitable endeavours, Samantha is a patron for Revitalise and is also an ambassador for the charity Save the Children.
