Samantha Cameron

Early life

Cameron is the elder daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet, and Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones. Sir Reginald and Annabel married on 11 November 1969. The couple divorced in 1974, and Annabel later remarried to William Waldorf Astor III, nephew of her own stepfather Michael Langhorne Astor, with whom she had three more children. Her father also had three more children by his second wife Victoria Penelope Walker.

Samantha Sheffield's birth was registered in Paddington, London. She grew up on the 300 acre estate of Normanby Hall, 5 mi north of Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire, though not in the Hall itself, the family having moved out in 1963, some eight years before her birth.

Cameron is a great-granddaughter of Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Berkeley Sheffield and, through him, is a distant cousin of model and actress Cara Delevingne. The father of Samantha's maternal grandmother, Patricia Clifford, was Sir Bede Clifford, a descendant of King Charles II. Her great-grandparents also include the writer Enid Bagnold and her husband Sir Roderick Jones, head of Reuters. Through her great-great-great-grandfather Sir Robert Sheffield, 4th Baronet, she is a fourth cousin of Pamela Harriman, first wife of Winston Churchill's son Randolph Churchill. This Sheffield ancestor was an MP for the same constituency as Thomas Corbett, also an ancestor.

Cameron's family also own a large Yorkshire estate called Sutton Park which has links to the ancestors of Catherine, Princess of Wales.

Education

Cameron initially went to St Helen and St Katharine school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and then took A-Levels at Marlborough College. She did an Art Foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts and went on to study Fine Art at the School of Creative Arts, part of the University of the West of England.

Family

She and David Cameron married on 1 June 1996 at the Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury, East Hendred, England, five years before he was first elected as MP for Witney at the 2001 general election.

The couple have had four children: Ivan Reginald Ian Cameron (8 April 2002, Hammersmith and Fulham, London – 25 February 2009, Paddington, London), Nancy Gwen Beatrice Cameron (born 19 January 2004, Westminster, London), Arthur Elwen Cameron (born 14 February 2006, Westminster) and Florence Rose Endellion Cameron (born 24 August 2010, Cornwall). Ivan was born with a rare combination of cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy and died at the age of six at St Mary's Hospital, London. Florence Cameron's third given name, Endellion, is taken from the Cornish village of St Endellion; she was born early at the Royal Cornwall Hospital while the Camerons were on holiday in Cornwall.

Work and politics

Fashion

Cameron was a creative director at the British accessories brand Smythson of Bond Street, from 1997 until May 2010, winning a British Glamour Magazine Award for Best Accessory Designer in 2009. She took on a part-time creative consultancy role at Smythson after her husband became prime minister. From 2011 to 2015, Cameron was on the judging panel for the Vogue Fashion Fund alongside Victoria Beckham, Alexandra Shulman, and Lisa Armstrong. She was an ambassador for the British Fashion Council playing a prominent role in London Fashion Week. In 2013, Cameron was named in Tatler's Top 10 Best Dressed List. In 2015, Cameron was named In Vanity Fair International Best-Dressed List.

After her husband's 2016 resignation as prime minister, Cameron founded Cefinn, a womenswear brand based in London, making "trend-free clothing for women who moved between roles, in fabrics that didn't need to be dry-cleaned". The first collection previewed in the January 2017 issue of British Vogue (published December 2016) and went on sale in February 2017. The name Cefinn (pronounced 'Seffin') is formed from the initials of her four children (Ivan, Nancy, Elwen, and Florence) between the first and last letters of Cameron. While Cameron suggested her brand's image might be hurt by her husband, The Guardian suggested the company was helped by her relatives in the fashion industry (mother, sister Emily Sheffield, and cousin Cath Kidston). Cameron announced in September 2025 that Cefinn was winding down; its intermittent profitability had ended as high-street fashion chains developed higher-priced ranges.

Charitable causes

Cameron is active for several charitable causes, and in June 2013 became a patron for Revitalise. Cameron has volunteered for Dress for Success, a nonprofit organisation that gives free clothes and advice about job interviews to unemployed women. In October 2012, she held a benefit for them at Number 10.

On 11 December 2015, it was announced Cameron, one of sixteen celebrities, to participate in the Great Sport Relief Bake Off, which aired in 2016 as part of that year's Sport Relief fundraiser.

Cameron is an ambassador for the charity Save the Children. In March 2013, after visiting Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Cameron said: "As a mother, it is horrifying to hear the harrowing stories from the children I met today, no child should ever experience what they have. With every day that passes, more children and parents are being killed, more innocent childhoods are being smashed to pieces."

Other issues

Cameron is credited with coining the phrase "There is such a thing as society; it's just not the same thing as the state". This has been said several times by David Cameron, including in his victory speech following his victory in the Conservative leadership election in 2005. It is seen as a rejoinder to Margaret Thatcher's famous comment, frequently misquoted as "there is no such thing as society".

Samantha and David Cameron are members of the Chipping Norton set.

References

References

1. (2 April 2015). "General election 2015 sketch: SamCam and George Osborne get down to business". Telegraph.
2. McDougall, Linda. (26 September 2008). "Tory party conference: Is Samantha Cameron ready for the spotlight?". The Daily Telegraph.
3. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8668385.stm When David Cameron was 'the new whizz kid of politics'] {{webarchive. link. (24 August 2017 BBC News – Newsnight, 6 October 2005)
4. (12 June 2020). "Emily Sheffield, sister-in-law of former PM David Cameron, named Evening Standard editor".
5. [http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec?htx=view&r=5538&dbid=8782&iid=ons_b19712pz-0253&fn=Samantha+Gwendoline&ln=Sheffield&st=r&ssrc=&pid=48417986 England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916–2005 Record for Samantha Gwendoline Sheffield]. Retrieved 20 April 2013
6. Gammell, Caroline. (12 May 2010). "Samantha Cameron is youngest 'First Lady' for half a century". The Daily Telegraph.
7. Melonie Clarke, Helena Gumley-Mason, ”Samantha Cameron's Sari Diplomacy” in [[The Lady (magazine). The Lady]], 26 November 2013, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140525195032/http://www.lady.co.uk/people/profiles/3336-samantha-cameron-s-sari-diplomacy archived here]
8. (August 2025). "Roedean's Royal Connection - Olive Middleton (Lupton 1896-1900)". Roedean School.
9. (17 March 2015). "Kate's links to North Yorkshire revealed". The Press (York).
10. (10 October 2009). "Lady in waiting: Samantha Cameron". The Independent.
11. (16 February 2006). "Cameron is father for third time". BBC News.
12. (25 February 2009). "Cameron's eldest son Ivan dies". BBC News.
13. (24 August 2010). "Samantha Cameron gives birth to baby girl". The Daily Telegraph.
14. (25 August 2010). "Camerons reveal daughter's name". BBC News.
15. Duck, Charlotte. (2 June 2009). "Glamour Award Winners 2009".
16. (2017-02-14). "From Politics to Fashion".
17. Fair, Vanity. (5 August 2015). "The 2015 International Best-Dressed List".
18. (10 September 2025). "Samantha Cameron to wind down her Cefinn womenswear brand". The Guardian.
19. (30 November 2016). "Samantha Cameron launches Cefinn fashion range".
20. (5 December 2016). "Inside January Vogue".
21. (13 February 2017). "Cefinn: The Full Collection Reveal".
22. (6 November 2019). "Reverse nepotism: is David Cameron's reputation affecting Samantha's dress sales?". The Guardian.
23. (July 2013). "Samantha Cameron joins in game of boccia with Paralympic athletes". The Daily Telegraph.
24. Emma Barnett, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-business/9614885/Dress-for-Success-the-charity-quietly-getting-British-women-back-into-work.html Dress for Success: the charity quietly getting British women back into work] {{webarchive. link. (8 February 2015 , ''The Daily Telegraph'', 18 October 2012)
25. Conlan, Tara. (11 December 2015). "Samantha Cameron and Ed Balls to mix it up in Great British Bake Off special". The Guardian.
26. (2 September 2015). "David Cameron: Taking more and more refugees not answer". BBC News.
27. "Samantha Cameron shocked by Syrian children's stories in Lebanon". Save the Children UK.
28. (6 December 2005). "In full: Cameron victory speech". BBC News.
29. Sparrow, Andrew. (7 March 2010). "Tories red-faced after 'Samantha for Labour' gaffe". The Guardian.
30. Caroline Dewar. (5 March 2012). "Who's who in the Chipping Norton set". [[The Daily Telegraph]].