Unseen honeymoon pictures reveal Princess Diana and 'Crazy Horse' Charles relaxing on board the Royal Yacht Britannia

By Paul Harris

Last updated at 7:18 PM on 4th November 2011


They were young, happy and relaxed.

From their smiles, you could almost guess they were in love (‘whatever “in love” means’, to borrow Prince Charles’s less than romantic phrase).

But these remarkably candid photos of Charles and Diana on honeymoon give no clue to the turmoil and torment to follow. Instead, they are a previously unseen record of the first hours the Prince and Princess of Wales spent together as man and wife.

The black and white images were taken by an official photographer on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, on which the couple spent their honeymoon.

Britannia's official photographer took pictures of Charles and Diana on board the Britannia during their 1981 honeymoon - when Prince Charles earned the nickname Crazy Horse for his aggressive tactics at deck hockey

The future King 'took no prisoners' and went in hard with his hockey stick against opponents in supposedly friendly games, crewman Terry Smith said

Copies were later made available to the crew – a gesture to reward their loyalty and service to the newlyweds everyone assumed would one day be king and queen.

Among those who acquired a set was Terry Smith, then a petty officer on Britannia. And for the next 30 years he treasured the photos and the memories they evoked of those days in the summer of 1981.



Now they are have resurfaced on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow after Mr Smith, 67, presented them for valuation.

Among the pictures are ones of Diana being presented to the crew, at the bar of the officers’ mess and laughing with her new husband.

One of the photographs shows a 20-year-old Diana waits for the half a shandy she ordered on board the Britannia when she visited the officers' mess - Charles went for an orange juice

An expert on the Antiques Roadshow - seen here inspecting the images - valued the photographs at £800

One picture from which the 20-year-old princess is absent, however, is a snap that shows 22 crewmen taking a dip in the Mediterranean.

Look closely and it seems they might be beckoning someone to join them. Moments later, Mr Smith recalls, Diana did just that.

‘She wasn’t too scared about jumping in the water. I have looked closely at the photo of the lads in the sea to see if she is in it but she must have jumped in after it was taken,’ he said.

Mr Smith, from Aberystwyth, west Wales, added: ‘Charles and Diana were very friendly and chatty. They could relax here, and it was nice to see them on board in normal clothing like ourselves – just a pair of jeans and T-shirts. Diana was like a breath of fresh air, like a girl just out of school.

‘They visited the mess when I happened to be serving at the bar. When they came in I served them a drink. She had a shandy and Charles had a boring orange juice.’

The honeymoon cruise began in Gibraltar and took the couple on a rare excursion away from the limelight. At one stage they went ashore in Greece for a romantic barbecue by themselves on the beach, Mr Smith remembers.

The set of prints was valued at £800 when Antiques Roadshow expert Katherine Higgins saw them on the show’s visit to Aberystwyth, due to be screened tomorrow.

She told Mr Smith: ‘Relaxed is clearly what comes across in this incredible collection.

‘They give a good insight into the royal couple off duty.’

The Britannia photographer made the photographs available to the crew, and Terry Smith took up his offer to purchase a selection

The photos, which came to light when Mr Smith took them to the Antiques Road Show, reveal how Charles and Di enjoyed entertainment on board the Britannia, including a tug 'o war (the Royals' heads are just visible)

The couple enjoyed swimming off the yacht in the Med - although as Diana jumped in after the picture was taken, she does not feature in the shot

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