The fascination with Diana, Princess of Wales, and her legacy continues almost 29 years after her death. Every so often, her story is rewritten in the present tense. Not only because of new information coming to light — or those recovered from the past — but also because of those tangible memories that have become treasured possessions for their owners and objects of desire for her followers. From her iconic dresses to personal letters… small fragments of a life that continue to generate interest.
On July 7, the British auction house Gorringe’s will put up for sale a collection related to the Princess of Wales and her adolescence. The objects in this new lot, which offers a unique insight into what Diana Spencer was like before becoming Diana, Princess of Wales upon marrying then-Prince Charles, come from Katherine Hanbury, Lady Di’s childhood friend who attended West Heath Girls’ School in London with her between 1973 and 1977. “It represents a genuine personal archive of a real friendship with someone who knew Diana before her public life. Through these objects, the princess can be seen in the years before becoming one of the most famous people in the world, as an innocent, proud, thoughtful, and deeply sincere young woman,” the auction house explains.
This collection includes four unpublished color photographs from Diana, Princess of Wales’s school days: two of her alone in her bedroom, another outside the school, and the last with her group of friends, in a scene where they are all relaxing in the sun next to the school. At that stage, the princess was not exactly distinguished by her academic performance. She left West Heath Girls’ School at 16, in 1977, the same year she met her future husband and father of her two children. Although they would not start their relationship until 1980; and, a year later, on July 29, 1981, they would marry.
Another item up for sale is precisely from two months after that massive wedding held at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Lady Di wrote a letter to Hanbury after returning from her honeymoon, which ended with a stay at Balmoral Castle following a two-week trip aboard the royal yacht Britannia. The letter is dated September 27, 1981: “Dear Katherine, you can’t imagine the pleasant surprise I had when I opened your card. Thank you so much for writing to me and wishing me the best.” It is three handwritten pages on official Buckingham Palace stationery, bearing the royal seal of Queen Elizabeth II. “We had a wonderful honeymoon, with radiant sun and, luckily, calm seas. Thank you very much for your kind gesture. With much affection, a very grateful Diana,” it concludes. These pages are inside an original envelope that is also part of the lot.
The owner of these memories has also included in the sale a birthday card handwritten by Diana, Princess of Wales, signed as Diana (S), from Spencer. What seems to be inferred is that there was another Diana in her class and that was how they distinguished one from the other. “It recalls Diana volunteering to clean the headmistress’s house, and it is memories like this, and the collection that has come to light, that present the true Diana in a way completely opposite to the public image created by others,” explains Albert Radford, specialist in books and manuscripts at Gorringe’s.
The final element completing this collection is the program of an intimate Thanksgiving ceremony held at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, on November 19, 1997, in memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The princess died in a tragic car accident in Paris at age 36, on August 31, 1997. This event had nothing to do with the state funeral held on September 6 at Westminster Abbey, which was broadcast worldwide on television. Only the closest attended her final farewell, making this program a unique keepsake that not many possess.
The auction house estimates the sale price of the entire collection will range between $4,600 and $6,937. The goal was to coincide the auction with what would have been the 45th anniversary of the royal wedding of Charles III and Diana, on July 29. Additionally, on July 1, the Princess of Wales would have turned 65.
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