Overview
- Gorringe’s in Lewes has listed the archive for sale on 7 July, with the house estimating the complete collection at about £4,000–£6,000.
- The items come from Katherine Hanbury, a childhood classmate who kept the material from West Heath Girls’ School where Diana studied between 1973 and 1977.
- The lot includes four previously unseen colour school photographs, a three-page ‘honeymoon’ letter dated 27 September 1981 written on royal-embossed paper and sent by registered post from Scotland, and an order of service for a private thanksgiving on 19 November 1997.
- Some reports identify classmates in the photos as actress Tilda Swinton and director Joanna Hogg, and Gorringe’s specialist Albert Radford says the archive shows Diana as unguarded and domestically minded before public life.
- The auction’s modest estimate and the preserved envelope details such as the red royal crest and registration number mean the sale is likely to attract collectors and cultural interest more than major market bidders, especially with Diana-related anniversaries approaching.