A letter written by a six-year-old King Charles III to his grandmother has been discovered in a loft in Warwickshire.
The letter reads: “Dear Granny, I am sorry that you are ill. I hope you will be better soon. Lots of love from Charles.”
It was sent to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on March 15, 1955, and underneath the handwriting is a mixture of doodle art and kisses on Buckingham Palace-headed paper.
The letter was found by a 49-year-old farm manager during a Christmas clear-out of his loft in Stratford-upon-Avon, along with several other pieces of royal memorabilia which had gone unnoticed for years.
The items will now be sold by Derbyshire-based Hansons Auctioneers on March 7, and combined are expected to make around £4,000 ($4,826).
“We finally had the time to look through a big box file that my mother had given to us,” the seller said.
“It originally belonged to my late grandad, Roland Stockdale.
“It contained lots of royal memorabilia, including a letter from Prince Charles to his grandmother. My wife said, ‘wow, look at that’.
“We were pretty gobsmacked but we weren’t sure whether anyone would be interested in it.”
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Mr Stockdale, originally from Carlisle, moved to London and got a job with the Metropolitan Police, eventually going on to work for the queen’s personal protection force during the 1950s.
It is believed he worked under several royal family members over his career. He died in his 70s in 1983.
A folder of royal memorabilia and letters was inherited by his son, who gave it to his wife more than 10 years ago.
It was then given to the current owner and his wife, who looked at it for the first time over Christmas last year.
As well as the letter from the then-prince of Wales, there is also correspondence between Mr Stockdale and William Tallon — also known as “Backstairs Billy” — the Queen Mother’s servant.
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Queen Consort Camilla chats with reception guests. PA -
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They include a postcard sent in 1983 from Sandringham, the royal family’s Norfolk country home, and a letter to Mr Stockdale’s wife offering condolences following his death, written on Clarence House-headed paper.
There is also a booklet entitled The Words Of Her Majesty The Queen, Christmas Day Nineteen Hundred And Fifty-Six, which is a copy of the queen’s 1956 Christmas broadcast which she delivered from her Sandringham study.
“My grandad was a man of few words and never really spoke about his time working with the royal family but he was clearly well thought of,” the seller said.
“I have absolutely no idea how he came to have the letter written by King Charles when he was a boy.
“It’s one of many things he kept. The file includes royal menus, an invitation to a dance at Balmoral Castle for his wife Audrey Stockdale, a note signed by the Queen Mother and a George VI Memorial Westminster booklet from October 21, 1955.”
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Prince Charles in a jet at RAF Cranwell in training to gain his 'wings' in August 1971. All photos: Getty -
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The prince with a jet plane at RAF Cranwell in 1971 -
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The prince while serving in the Royal Navy on board the HMS Minerva at Plymouth in 1973 -
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The prince on a British military helicopter en route to Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan on March 25, 2010 -
Prince Charles sits for a group picture after presenting campaign medals to soldiers from the Black Watch in Fort George, Scotland, in 2010 -
The prince visits First Battalion the Mercian Regiment to mark 10 years as Colonel-in-Chief and 40 years since becoming Colonel-in-Chief of the Cheshire Regiment at Bulford Camp in Salisbury in 2018
Charles Hanson, the owner of Hansons Auctioneers, said the finds were “remarkable” and that the childhood letter from King Charles was “heartwarming”.
The letter from King Charles has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 and the queen’s Christmas Day speech has a guide price of between £100 and £200.
Meanwhile, the king held an audience with the president of the German parliament on Wednesday.
King Charles, who is expected to become the first British monarch to address the Bundestag during a state visit to Germany later this month, welcomed Barbel Bas to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday afternoon.
The king and Ms Bas shook hands in the palace’s 1844 Room, with the pair appearing in good humour, laughing as they chatted and greeted one another.
The king’s trip to Germany is expected to follow immediately after a state visit to France, which is due to be King Charles’s first official journey abroad since he acceded to the throne.
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Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the reported trips.
Katja Mast, first parliamentary secretary of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, welcomed the forthcoming visit, telling the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that German-British friendship was “extremely important to Europe and the world” post-Brexit and amid the war in Ukraine.
The king previously addressed the Bundestag in Berlin in 2020 as the Prince of Wales.
Both he and the Queen Consort are expected to travel to Paris in the last week of March at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Le Parisien newspaper reported they will attend a state dinner at the Elysee Palace, with Queen Consort Camilla also holding a meeting with France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron.
King Charles earlier on Wednesday visited the warehouse and kitchens of the Felix Project food distribution charity in east London, but the queen consort pulled out of the engagement as she continues to recover from Covid.
