A real Royal variety show! Rare pictures of Queen Elizabeth in PANTO aged 15 to fetch 'thousands' at auction

They are the fascinating photos which show how natural Queen Elizabeth II would be in the public eye.

Treading the boards as a fresh-faced teenager, these remarkable images show the 15-year-old future monarch performing in a private royal pantomime.

The rare pictures show Princess Elizabeth in Cinderella, in her first Christmas production in December 1941.

She played Prince Florizel in Cinderella with her younger sister Princess Margaret - then just 11 - in the title role.

The lavish panto was performed in front of a privileged and private audience in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle.

Other photos show the two princesses starring in other pantos for the next three Christmasses, all performed at Windsor.

In 1942 the show was Sleeping Beauty, with the young Queen playing Prince Salvador and Margaret Fairy Thistledown.

The following year saw a production of Aladdin, with Princess Elizabeth in the starring lead and her sister as Princess Roxana.

The final show in 1944 was Old Mother Red Riding Boots, with the young Queen as Lady Christina Sherwood and Margaret as the Honourable Lucinda Fairfax.

Photographs of the pantos - signed by the two princesses - have now been made public for the first time.

They are being sold as part of an archive collected by a Cyril Woods, who was a star pupil at the Royal School in Windsor and acted in the pantos.

He struck up a lasting friendship with The Queen and worked for the Crown Estate office before his death in 2001.

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His collection, which includes almost 60 pictures, is expected to fetch around £16,000 when they go under the hammer next week.

Senior valuer Chris Albury said: 'This has to be the biggest collection of such photographs to ever be discovered and put up for sale.

MORE PICTURES OF A TEENAGE ELIZABETH STARRING IN ROYAL CHRISTMAS PANTO:

'You see the odd signed photograph, and the odd programme, but to have this many it really is remarkable.

'It is a lovely collection because it really shows the end of childhood for the young princesses.

'I doubt that many of these photos are known or have ever been published.

'They have never been shown publicly. One assumes the Queen knew of it but Cyril didn't show it off.'

The photographs were bequeathed to two life-long friends of Mr. Woods after his death and they kept them
in an old suitcase in a wardrobe.

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The hoard also includes personal letters from the Queen that Cyril inherited from Hubert Tanner, headmaster at the Royal School.

One letter to his Mr. Tanner's wife in September 1950 thanks her for a letter congratulating the young Queen on the arrival of Princess Anne.

Her Majesty wrote: 'Her brother seems very fascinated by her.  It seems very strange to actually talk about 'children'!'

Another letter to Cyril documents the fire at Windsor castle in 1992 thanking him for helping remove things from the burning building.

Mr Albury added: 'The Queen really takes the time to write these very personal letters, often including more detail and words than you would expect.

'You can see real friendship and it is impossible not to find them touching.' 

The auction takes place at Dominic Winter, Gloucestershire, on December 11.