Unpublished pictures of Princess Diana launching HMS Cornwall in 1985 up for auction
A commemorative album of unpublished photos featuring Princess Diana launching HMS Cornwall in 1985 is set to sell at auction.
The newly discovered picture album titled Launch of HMS Cornwall by Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales at Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited 14th October 1985, comprises 32 colour and six black-and-white photographs and is set to fetch between £500 and £800.
The photos of Princess Diana are from 1985 and were discovered in a bookshop in Lewes, East Sussex, and will feature at Charles Miller Ltd's auction later this year.
It is understood that the images, showing the Princess greeting Royal Navy personnel in Glasgow, are mostly – if not all – unpublished, because the album was said to have been produced for Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd privately, and was given to the directors as a keepsake.
Princess Diana, who also had the title Duchess of Cornwall, is featured in the album greeting members of the Armed Forces, their families, and well-wishers.
HMS Cornwall was launched in Glasgow in 1985 and commissioned at Falmouth, Cornwall, in 1988. The Type-22 frigate was originally designed as a specialist anti-submarine vessel and was decommissioned on 26 April 2011.
The auction – titled Maritime and Scientific Models, Instruments & Art – will take place on 25 April 2023.
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