The brother of Camilla Parker Bowles died Wednesday in a New York hospital after suffering a serious head injury in a slip and fall, according to a spokesman for the British royal family. 
 
 Mark Shand, 62, younger brother of the Duchess of Cornwall and brother-in-law to Prince Charles, reportedly fell and smashed his head on the pavement of a city sidewalk in the early morning hours. 
 
 "It is with deep sadness that we have to confirm that the Duchess of Cornwall's brother, Mark Shand, has today passed away in New York," a spokesman for the British royal family said. 
 
 “Mr. Shand died in hospital as a result of a serious head injury, which he sustained during a fall last night,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement. 
 
 Mark Shand, right, and Ruth Cowys at the Faberge Egg Final Auction held at Sotheby's Tuesday just hours before Shand fell and hit his head. He died of his injuries the next day. (Joe Schildhorn /BFAnyc/Sipa USA ) 
 
 “The Duchess, The Prince of Wales and all her family members are utterly devastated by this sudden and tragic loss,” it said. 
 
 The fatal injury happened about 3 a.m. Wednesday after a night of partying for Shand. 
 
 The longtime philanthropist, who supports a charity to protect endangered Asian elephants, had begun the evening at an auction at Sotheby’s. 
 
 The Sotheby's auction was one of the last places he was spotted before he Mark Shand died. (Marcus Santos/New York Daily News) 
 
 Prince Charles’s niece, Princess Eugenie of York — daughter of disgraced royal Sarah Ferguson — was also present, sources said. 
 
 From there, Shand left with friends to go to the Diamond House club in Midtown, sources said. 
 
 But that wasn’t his last stop. Shand later moved to the Rose Bar at the Gramercy. 
 
 Shand later met friends at the Diamond Horseshoe club (pictured) before heading to Rose Bar at the Gramercy. (Marcus Santos/New York Daily News) 
 
 He was outside — reportedly trying to light a cigarette — when he slipped and fell, police said. 
 
 Shand was alert and complaining of head pain when first responders got to him, cops said. 
 
 He died sometime Wednesday at Bellevue Hospital. 
 
 Camilla Parker Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, talks with her brother Mark Shand died at a New York hospital after a fall. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images) 
 
 “It is so sad. He stayed till the end and was on his way to another venue downtown when he fell,” said a guest at the Diamond Horseshoe. 
 
 “He was jovial and in a good mood enjoying the party,” the friend said. 
 
 Shand had been in town to support the Faberge Egg Hunt, which raised funds for a variety of charities. 
 
 Mark Shand was chairman of Elephant Family, a conservation nonprofit, and took part in the egg auction at Sotheby's to raise money for the organization. (ELEPHANT FAMILY / HANDOUT) 
 
 He had commissioned his own Faberge egg for a similar event London in 2012. 
 
 The Shand-sponsored egg was titled “Humpty Dumpty,” and depicted the hapless character from the famous Lewis Carroll tale, "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Saw There." 
 
 Shand had his "Humpty Dumpty" egg at the Sotheby auction Tuesday night to help raise money for his elephant charity, according to people who were there. 
 
 “Mark Shand was a man of extraordinary vitality, a tireless campaigner and conservationist whose incredible work through The Elephant Family and beyond remained his focus right up until his death,” the family spokesman's emailed statement said. 
 
 gotis@nydailynews.com 

 The Duchess of Cornwall's brother Mark Shand has died after suffering a serious head injury during a fall in New York. 
 
 Law enforcement sources have told Sky News the 62-year-old travel writer fell at around 3am outside the Rose Bar on Lexington Avenue. 
 
 It has also been reported that Mr Shand was lighting a cigarette at the time. 
 
 A statement from Clarence House said: "The Duchess, The Prince of Wales and all her family members are utterly devastated by this sudden and tragic loss. 
 
 Prince Charles and Camilla are "utterly devastated" at Mr Shand's death 
 
 "Mark Shand was a man of extraordinary vitality, a tireless campaigner and conservationist whose incredible work through The Elephant Family and beyond remained his focus right up until his death." 
 
 Mr Shand, Camilla's only brother, was in the city for an auction at Sotheby's in aid of a charity for underprivileged children and the Elephant Family. 
 
 Mr Shand fell outside the Rose Bar on New York's Lexington Avenue 
 
 The charity, which Mr Shand was the chairman of, aims to save the endangered Asian elephant from extinction in the wild. 
 
 The auction was the finale for the month-long Big Egg Hunt NYC by Faberge, in which egg sculptures were sold to the highest bidder. 
 
 Camilla with her brother Mark Shand in 2010 
 
 It raised £950,000 ($1.6m). 
 
 Mr Shand wrote a number of books and appeared in documentaries, with elephants and India common themes. 
 
 He won the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Prix Litteraire d'Amis for his book Queen Of The Elephants, which was later made into a BBC documentary. 
 
 When Mr Shand was younger he was known for partying. 
 
 Prince Charles and Mark Shand during a visit to India 
 
 He was expelled from Milton Abbey School in Dorset for smoking cannabis and spent time as a rally driver and bobsleigh star. 
 
 Major Bruce Shand, his father, opted to send him to Australia when he was expelled and Mr Shand stopped off in India, where his fondness for elephants developed. 
 
 He was romantically linked to the likes of Bianca Jagger, Jackie Onassis' sister Lee Radziwill and Jackie's daughter, Caroline Kennedy. 
 
 Mr Shand married the French actress Clio Goldsmith in 1990 and they had a daughter together called Ayesha.
– Mark Shand, the brother of Camilla, duchess of Cornwall, has died after a freak accident in New York. "The Duchess, the Prince of Wales, and all her family members are utterly devastated by this sudden and tragic loss," says Clarence House in a statement, according to Sky News. Shand, 62, was attending a charity event at Sotheby's when he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette, the New York Daily News reports. He slipped while lighting it and hit his head on the pavement, suffering a serious head injury.