Unusual, unseen or interesting royal photos

[ARichtGoodDram]

We had one of these threads a while back and people posted all sorts of interesting pics so thought it would be nice to have another

I’ll start with this one if QEII jumping from barge to land on a state visit

The Duchess of Gloucester giving Lady Davina a wee shot of the Cartier India tiara

Oh that's so cute 😊

That is a beautiful photo!

Cool and elegant seems to be part of the job description for the Duchess of Gloucester. Here is the previous one, born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott, a daughter of the Duke of Buccleuch. She had two claims to distinction - she was a direct descendant of Charles II in the male line, through his eldest (illegitimate) son, James, Duke of Monmouth, and she is the longest lived member of the Royal family, dying at the age of 102 in 2004. She was known as Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, although of course that wasn't correct.

The profile portrait is from The Court Jeweller website, recommended for anyone who likes to know about the bling.

The photo in coat and hat makes me think of Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter.

Unlike the Queen Mother, she looked good in uniform too. In WW2, she was head of the WAAF.

She just looks like such an elegant lady.

I think in the coat and hat photo there’s a real resemblance to her granddaughter Davina.

It’s a shame, given how things played out with her becoming a working royal and the longest living royal that she didn’t get a ‘proper’ royal wedding due to the death of her father.

i always think it was a nice touch that one of her middle names, Christabel, was also given to Princess Alexandra when she too was born on Christmas Day.

She was very elegant. She married when she was 34, and had her first child Prince William when she was 41, and Prince Richard when she was 44, so I'm guessing at least one of them was a lovely surprise!

According to Wiki, she had two miscarriages before William was born. Given her age, she must almost have given up on having children.

It’s a shame, given how things played out with her becoming a working royal and the longest living royal that she didn’t get a ‘proper’ royal wedding due to the death of her father.

If they'd postponed it following the death of the Duke, they'd have had to postpone again when King George V died soon after. So just as well they went ahead. They did have a full set of bridesmaids, including the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, and her dress was the first royal wedding gown designed by Hartnell.

She got married in pale pink because she thought white looked wrong at her age.

To be fair, the WAAF/RAF uniforms are generally more flattering.

It's really difficult to look in service uniform as a woman if you have any kind of curves.

I actually think Queen Margrethe has given up smoking now!
She quit smoking in preparation for the major back surgery she underwent in February last year, and I think she never started smoking again afterwards. Impressive for someone who has been a smoker since she was a teenager!

That is impressive! Good for her, that's some willpower after all these years.

@Abouttimeforanamechange As a young Australian tourist in the 70s, on a tour of Windsor Castle, the tour guide pointed out a lady walking by and said that's Princess Alice. That and the fabulous doll's house are about all I remember of the visit.

Several years after that I was working in the UK for a year on an exchange programme through a Commonwealth organisation of which Princess Margaret was the patron. There were about 90 exchangees involved and we were invited to our own garden party at Clarence House where we were put into groups of about 3/4 and had each group had a five minute chat with the princess. Writing that, I feel sorry for the poor woman having to initiate all those idle conversations.

Because it was raining it was held inside Clarence House, not in the garden. I remember the food was fabulous.

Thank you everybody, what a great thread!
So many beautiful and interesting photos.

Usually when we saw the Queen on horseback, it was quite sedate, but I came across these when I was looking for something else. Riding on the course at Ascot, before the meeting. And of course couldn't leave out Burmese!

I love the one where she's galloping down the course at Ascot. She always looked so regal at the Trooping on Burmese. What a beautiful horse.

Princess Alice was quite adventurous for someone of her era and background. I came across her autobiography years ago when browsing in a library, and flicked through it.

Her comment about marrying into the RF (at quite an advanced age for those days!) was 'I had had a good innings' so it was time to give up the fun and start the boring part 😂 or words to that effect

Princess Alice as she and the Duke arrived in Australia in 1945, with Princes William and Richard, when the Duke was Governor General.

We visited Windsor castle last and I couldn't stop staring at that seat and thinking of the Queen sitting there.

Forgive my ignorance, but who was Princess Alice?

She was the Duchess of Gloucester, the current duke’s mother

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread but this photo really made me laugh and I just had to share 🤣😇

Looks like the beginning credits from the very (very, very) old 'The Saint' with Roger Moore.

I love this one!

Oops. My ginger cat isn't a closet royal. The other picture!

I thought that was a cat on top of a ‘royal car’ for a minute there 😀