Charles Spencer Shares a Photo of Princess Diana in Her Primary School Uniform

Princess Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, recently published a memoir called A Very Private School, where he discusses abuse and neglect at British boarding schools, including his own experiences. In the run-up to the publication, he has been sharing happier memories from his childhood to his social media accounts, including a rarely seen photograph from approximately 1967, which shows Diana and Spencer posing on a swing set along with their mother, Frances Shand Kydd. On Wednesday, he shared another rare photograph showing Diana and Charles in crimson uniforms on their way to elementary school.

In the photo caption, Spencer explained he and Diana attended school together in Norfolk before he attended Maidwell Hall, the boarding school he writes about in his memoir. “My first day of school, in September 1968: my father took this photograph of me and my sister, Diana, just before he drove us to Silfield, a really lovely primary school in King’s Lynn, Norfolk,” he said. “The headmistress was Miss Jean Lowe, a warm and thoughtful lady who loved her boys and girls. I was there till 1972, when I headed off to the place I call—in my memoir—A Very Private School.”

In February 2024, Spencer said that he found his original crimson uniform jacket in the attic at Althorp House, the family estate where he currently lives with his wife, Karen Spencer. In the 2000s, an exhibition about Diana’s life included a few artifacts from her time at Silfield School, including her uniform jacket. According to The Daily Telegraph, it also included a report card showing that the future princess was deemed “good” at religious knowledge and geography, “fairly good” at history, and “very good” at writing though she “must be more careful where she puts capital letters.”

In a recent interview with People, Spencer said that he believed that Diana was unaware of the abuse he details in his memoir and likely did not experience something similar when she went to boarding school. “I don’t remember us ever really discussing what we were going through. She went to a very gentle place, I believe,” he said. “We would reconnect for the school holidays, and I don’t remember ever talking about it with her.”