Following the construction of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1812, a small settlement grew up to the south and became known as Yorktown (also spelled York Town).

A second British Army institute, the Staff College, opened to the east in 1862, and the nucleus of Cambridge Town was laid out at around the same time.

Much of the town centre dates from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including The Atrium, a retail, entertainment and residential complex, opened in 2008.

The Basingstoke Canal, which runs to the south of Camberley, was completed in 1794 and the wharf at Frimley was used to supply building materials for the Royal Military College.

The area has a strong links to the performing arts - Camberley Theatre was opened in 1966 and Elmhurst Ballet School was based in the town until 2004.

Among the former residents are the Victorian composer, Arthur Sullivan, who attended Yorktown School as a child, the musician Rick Wakeman, who lived in Camberley during the 1980s, and the actress, Simone Ashley, who was born in the town in 1995.

There are several works of public art in Camberley, including The Concrete Elephant, which was installed in 1964 on the London Road, having been commissioned for the Lord Mayor's Show of the previous year.

The new name is a portmanteau of "Cam" (the name of a local stream), "Amber Hill" (an area of high ground identified in a survey of 1607 by the cartographer, John Norden) and "—ley" (a suffix found in local toponyms, such as Frimley and Yateley, derived from the Old English lee meaning "shelter" or lea meaning "pasture" or "meadow").

[11] An Iron Age fort, among many examples known as Caesar's Camp, was to the north of this area alongside the Roman road The Devil's Highway.

[12] In the 17th century, the area along the turnpike road through Bagshot Heath (now the A30) was known as a haunt of highwaymen,[12] such as William Davies – also known as the Golden Farmer[13][note 2] – and Claude Duval.

A settlement known as "New Town" grew in the area around the college which in 1831 was renamed Yorktown, after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.

In 1969 there was an outbreak of rabies when a dog, just released from a six month quarantine after returning from Germany, attacked two people on Camberley Common.

Camberley's town centre is suffering a decline in footfall and increases in vacancies as shoppers in affluent areas move their spending online and towards leisure and experience activities as opposed to traditional retail.

Burlington Group who moved into Watchmoor Park in 2009 and Sun Microsystems, until they were taken over by Oracle in 2010, whose UK headquarters was located just across the Hampshire border in Minley next to the M3 motorway at junction 4a.

[30] Unlike most towns in Surrey, Camberley did not have its own power station and instead, electricity was purchased on the wholesale market and was distributed locally.

Water was extracted from the chalk aquifer and was piped to a filtration plant at Frimley Green, before being pumped to a service reservoir on Frith Hill.

[41] Following a report in 1902, which condemned the state of the town sewers, new pipework was installed and a new wastewater treatment works opened in Yorktown in 1907.

[61][62] A 2017 infrastructure assessment commissioned by the borough council notes that rail journey times to London from Camberley are slow (c. 72 – c. 80 minutes) and that many local residents choose to drive to Brookwood, Farnborough (Main) and Sunningdale for faster, direct services.

[68] A £1.2M shared cycle and footpath between Blackwater station and Watchmoor was completed in 2017[71] and a new bike-parking facility opened in Princess Way in the town centre in 2021.

Originally housed in a cottage close to the Royal Military College, one of its early pupils was the composer, Arthur Sullivan.

[74] The first Cordwalles School was founded in Elliot Place, Greenwich, in 1805 and one of its early pupils was the future prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli.

[76][77] Barossa Secondary School began teaching its first pupils in September 1963, although the official opening ceremony did not take place for another two years.

[105] Proceeds from the sale of copies of the John Betjeman poem, A Subaltern's love song, which mentions Camberley, were also used to fund the building work.

[111] The local Bengali Welfare Association established an Islamic centre in the former St Gregory's Roman Catholic School building in 1996.

It had been commissioned for the Lord Mayor's Show the previous year and the artist, Barbara Jones, designed the sculpture using pipework from the company's product range.

[132] The Arena Leisure Centre was built on the northeastern corner of the London Road Recreation Ground and opened in November 1984.

The team was initially referred to as St Michael’s, Camberley and played its home games on meadow land in King’s Ride.

[144] Camberley Heath Golf Club was designed by Harry Colt[145] and was formally opened by Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein on 1 January 1914.

[150] The club shut down at the start of the First World War, but was refounded in 1929 and began playing its home games at the Watchetts Recreation Ground the following year.

[170][171] A stone, set into the pavement at the foot of the memorial, commemorates Victoria Cross recipient Garth Walford, who was born in Yorktown in 1882 and who died at Gallipoli in 1915.