A private archive of letters sent by the Queen and Prince of Wales to a trusted aide reveal the monarch’s “emptiness and loneliness” after the death of her father and her concerns about “entrenched” opinions in Northern Ireland.
The royal correspondence to Michael Farebrother, a former tutor of Prince Charles, spans 40 years and covers all manner of subjects including the deaths of King George VI and Lord Mountbatten, a dumpy horse and a former gym mistress with large thighs.
Farebrother, a former Grenadier Guard who patrolled Windsor Castle during the Second World War, later became a schoolmaster and Charles’s private tutor.
As well as numerous letters sent from Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral and Sandringham, the archive contains 22 candid photographs Farebrother took of the royal family and artwork by a young Charles and Princess Anne.
In one of the earliest letters from the Queen, she expressed her “emptiness and loneliness” and “unbearable” sorrow after the death of her father in February 1952.
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But she declared “I have a job to do” in a letter written just days after ascending the throne.
She went on to state that her father’s death was “so much worse” for her mother and younger sister Princess Margaret to be able to look to the future.
Twenty-seven years later Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin and the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle, died when his fishing boat was blown up by the IRA off Mullaghmore, County Sligo, on the August bank holiday. His grandson and a local boy also died.
In a letter the Queen expressed her doubts that the Troubles would ever be resolved.
She wrote: “One can only pray that he will not have died in vain and that some good may come of this terrible act of blowing up a family on holiday and will shock people into doing something about Ireland — if only their opinions were not so entrenched.”
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Farebrother kept the letters and photographs for the rest of his life and had them made into a red cloth-bound album before his death in 1987, aged 67.
It is being sold by a relative with Gorringe’s Auctioneers of Lewes, East Sussex for a pre-sale estimate of between £50,000 and £80,000.
The black and white photos include several of an eight-year-old Charles playing around in the grounds and parapets of Windsor Castle.
There is one charming image of him dressed in an oversized coat and a black bowler hat and carrying an umbrella.
There are also images of Margaret, the Queen Mother and the Queen with one of her very favourite horses called Betsy.
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In a letter dated February 10, 1957, the Queen expressed her thanks for Farebrother sending her a photo of Betsy, which she reluctantly and jokingly accepted looked more like a camel.
She wrote: “I am only sorry that the camera proves that my dear Betsy is much more like a camel than a horse, which is what I am always being told and never believe!”
She went on to thank him for tutoring Charles at Sandringham over the Christmas holidays of 1956.
She wrote: “It made all the difference to him and he so obviously enjoyed you being there and it was so clever of you not to be in best ‘schoolmaster-ish’ with him and win his friendship so quickly.”
Farebrother had spent the previous new year with the royal family and recounted the festivities in a letter home to his father, including dancing with the Queen Mother.
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He wrote “Dinner with the Duchess of Glos. on my left — a film, and then hot punch and Auld Lang Syne at midnight. The Queen Mum then made me dance with her to the wireless and everyone joined in.
“Princess Margaret puts on a rock ’n’ roll record and the children caper all over the place.”
The Queen also sent Farebrother letters of thanks for his congratulations after her engagement to Prince Philip and births of Charles and Prince Andrew.
In a letter dated November 28, 1948 — 14 days after the birth of a “very sweet” Prince Charles — the then Princess Elizabeth wrote: “We are enormously proud of him.
“We are also glad that he has given a bit of happiness to so many people besides ourselves. Such a lot has happened since the Windsor days and I find it very hard to believe sometimes that I am married and have a baby of my own.”
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On March 6, 1960, 15 days after the arrival of Andrew, she wrote: “Charles had the luck to be allowed off for the weekend — he and Anne are completely fascinated by the baby.”
There are four documents relating to the time Farebrother tutored Charles.
Charles wrote to Farebrother about a memorial service for Mrs Townend, the former headmistress of Hill House School, in London’s Knightsbridge, where he was a pupil from 1956 to 1958.
He wrote: “I shall never forget those acid drops — nor, for that matter, the gym mistress who had large thighs and shouted ‘commence!’ very loudly at the start of each exercise.”
He signed off: “From your erstwhile pupil. Charles.”
Charles also described the “jolly” Christmas of 1984 at Windsor Castle and how “William had a wonderful time pursuing all the other children until he was purple in the face!”
Farebrother attended Eton College and Oxford University, who he played first-class cricket for until his sporting career was cut short by the Second World War.
He served in the Grenadier Guards and fought in the Italian campaign and was erroneously reported as killed in action in the 1945 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
After leaving the army he worked as a schoolmaster and in 1956 he was appointed to the post of headmaster at St Peter’s School.
Philip Taylor, of Gorringe’s, said: “We are privileged to have been instructed to offer for sale ‘The Michael Farebrother Collection of Papers Concerning The Queen and her Family’ which are being offered for sale for the first time.
“It is a unique and historically significant album of candid correspondence, hitherto unpublished photographs, and ephemera.
“It includes a large selection of manuscript letters from the Queen and Prince Charles on many matters of private and public life.
“Chronologically collated, the collection reflects the life and career of Michael Farebrother together with an intimate glimpse into day-to-day life in the royal household in the early 1950s.”
The album is being sold on December 7.
