Royal memorabilia fetches thousands

Updated 19.01 Sat Jul 05 2008
Keywords: gin letter, Queen, Royal, auction

A note from the Queen Mother asking a servant to pack a bottle of gin fetched £16,000 at an auction.

The note was one of hundreds of mementoes collected by the late William Tallon, affectionately known as Backstairs Billy for his role as Page of the Backstairs, to go under the hammer in Colchester, Essex.

The auction, run by Reeman Dansie in the unlikely setting of an industrial estate in Colchester, Essex, was being held following Mr Tallon's death last November

The top-priced individual item was a letter from the Queen Mother instructing Mr Tallon to pack some Dubonnet and gin, "in case it is needed".

The lot, expected to make between £200 and £300, sold for £16,000 to a mystery telephone bidder.

The 700 lots owned by Tallon were sold off following his death last November.

Mr Tallon joined the Royal Household in 1951, aged 15, and over the following 51 years worked his way up to become the Queen Mother's Steward and the Page of the Backstairs.

Also included in the sale were eight letters penned to Mr Tallon by Diana, Princess of Wales, which made a combined £20,000.

One of the most poignant, written on June 28 1982 following the birth of Prince William, went for £5,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder.

It read: "We are not sure at the moment what has hit us, except a very strong pair of lungs!

"Both parents are making little sense, we just seem to spend most of our time gazing at this tiny person!"

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