Princess Diana’s ‘intimate’ letters go under the hammer

Touching letters and handwritten cards from Princess Diana to her family’s former housekeeper are to be sold at auction this month.

Personal cards and handwritten letters by the late Princess Diana of Wales to her family’s former housekeeper are to be sold at auction on July 30.

The letters were received by Violet Collison, who Diana affectionately called Collie, who was head housekeeper to her parents at Park House on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk where Diana spent her childhood.

In the letters, Diana is thanking Collie for gifts she has sent the young princes, Prince William and Harry, with the Princess also responding by sending Christmas cards. In one letter written from Kensington Palace on September 25, 1984, Diana thanked Collie for a gift to Harry.

The notes also reveal touching moments about Diana’s life at the time. She noted that “William adores his little brother and spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs and kisses over Harry”.

The documents are expected to sell for thousands of pounds when they go under the hammer in Stansted Mountfitchet on 30 July.

One of the letters, written on Buckingham Palacenotepaper, was sent just three weeks before Diana’s own wedding to Prince Charles.

The marriage of Diana and Charles took place on July 29, 1981, at St Paul’s Cathedral and was hailed as the “wedding of the century”.

Lady Diana penned: “Everyone frantically busy here doing last-minute decorations…. The bride-to-be has remained quite calm!”

After the marriage of Diana’s parents ended, Collie followed Diana’s mother to London in 1967, working for her and her new husband until her retirement in 1973. Collie passed away in 2013 at the age of 89.

Luke Macdonald, director at Sworders Auctioneers told the BBC the letters were “so intimate”.

He explained: “They’re things that otherwise we probably would not be aware of outside the small circles of the Royal Family.”

“The fact that she was wanting to say a special thank you – for albeit small presents – really says how kind and generous and caring Diana was.”