Princess Diana's Private Letters to be Auctioned

Private handwritten letters and postcards from Princess Diana to her family's former housekeeper, Violet Collison, will be auctioned on 30 July. They are expected to fetch thousands of pounds.

This was reported by the BBC.

Princess Diana maintained a close relationship with Violet Collison, whom she called simply ‘Collie’. Collison worked as a housewife in the Park House of Sandringham Palace, where Diana spent her childhood.

Collie sent gifts to Princess Diana, as well as to Princes William and Harry, for which Diana responded with thanks and Christmas cards.

These letters are expected to sell for thousands of pounds. One of the letters, written on paper from Buckingham Palace, was sent by Diana just three weeks before her wedding to Prince Charles. In it, Diana Spencer wrote: ‘Everyone here is making the final preparations. The bride remains quite calm!’

In another letter, written in September 1984, Diana thanks her former housekeeper for a gift for Prince Harry. She wrote: ‘William adores his little brother and is always showering him with endless hugs and kisses.’

Luke Macdonald, director of Sworders auction house, said the letters were ‘very intimate’. ‘These are things we probably wouldn't know about, except in the narrow circles of the royal family. The fact that she wanted to say special thanks - even for small gifts - really shows how kind, generous and caring Diana was,’ he says.

During her time at Park House, Violet Collison would send birthday greetings to Diana and her brother Charles and sisters Sarah and Jane. After the Spencer's marriage ended in 1967, Violet went to London with Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kidd. She later returned to Norfolk to retire.

Collison remained close to Frances and the Spencer children until her death in 2013 at the age of 89.

The auction house noted that lots related to Princess Diana have attracted interest from around the world, especially in the United States. The lots also include framed photographs and Christmas cards, as well as Miss Collison's invitations to Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles in 1981 and her funeral in 1997.

McDonald claims that the individual letters are worth between £800 and £1200, although they are expected to sell for higher amounts. The lots will be auctioned at Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers on 30 July.