Childhood Letter By Queen Elizabeth II Expected To Fetch £4,000 At Auction

A handwritten childhood letter by Queen Elizabeth II is set to go under the hammer, with auctioneers projecting bids of up to £4,000.

The one-page note, addressed to the head housemaid at Royal Lodge, Windsor, features drawings of dogs, horses and children, and includes the young princess asking if “the birds are well, and the goldfish haven’t died”.

According to Hansons Auctioneers, the letter was written while the then Princess Elizabeth was staying at Praa Sands between 1936 and 1940, when she was aged between 10 and 12.

The auction will take place on February 27 in Penshurst.

Justin Matthews of the auction house described the discovery as remarkable.

“In my 27 years in the international auction world, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

The letter also mentions primroses picked by the late monarch, which she asked be shared among staff at Royal Lodge.

Among the archive were additional letters addressed to former head housemaid Beatrice Stillman, including one from Princess Margaret requesting that she “look after my bathing suit”.

Historical records linked to the collection show that after Stillman’s brother-in-law John Dicker died in an air raid in 1940, the Queen Mother — Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon — invited his widow and daughters to play with the princesses at Royal Lodge.

The letters were discovered in 2024 by William Westacott in a suitcase stored under his late mother’s bed in Sevenoaks.

Westacott said the find was emotional for the family.

“We knew the letters existed, but to read them in the flesh was a ‘wow’ moment.”

He added that his aunt Rene had fond memories of meeting the royal family and playing in a large playhouse in the garden of Royal Lodge.

The sale is expected to attract collectors and royal memorabilia enthusiasts worldwide, given the rarity of personal childhood correspondence from the late monarch.