A rare photo of the Queen taken by a schoolboy months before her coronation has been unearthed to mark the monarch’s 95th birthday.
Thirteen-year-old Richard Bellamy was thrilled when the 26-year-old paid a visit to his school.
It was 1952 – decades before the mobile phone camera revolution – but that didn’t stop the thrilled teenager from capturing a photo of the new Queen.
Richard, who is in his 80s and from Grimsby, kept the photo under wraps for almost seven decades so has revealed it for the first time to mark the Queen’s 95th birthday on Wednesday.
The Queen visited Shrewsbury School with the late Prince Philip on October 24, 1952 – shortly after her father King George VI died and months before her coronation took place on June 2, 1953.
Richard told Grimsby Live : “Photos at the time were rare and this was taken by holding my box camera above my 13-year-old head.
“This has never been published before, as far as I know.”
The black and white image captures the young royal looking to the side with her handbag resting on her elbow.
The Queen made her visit during Richard’s first-term at the private boarding school in Shropshire when they had around 545 pupils.
The Royals spent about 20 minutes in the library viewing manuscripts, early books and bindings.
The students also enjoyed a mass PT display, the Guard of Honour, the opening of the Queen’s Terrace, and a chapel service, where the schoolboys joined together to sing the National Anthem.
A statement on Shrewsbury School’s website reads: “As a postscript to this Royal day, a group of boys, finding the sherry which the Queen and the staff had enjoyed unattended in the Moser Buildings, felt there would be no harm in joining in the general festivities with a loyal toast.”
In the months following the Queen’s visit, Richard recalls being called into the headmaster’s office.
He added: “He shouted ‘Bellamy’ and I thought ‘Oh no, what have I done’.”
But instead of receiving a scolding, Richard was handed a letter from the Lady-in-Waiting sent via Windsor Castle.
Richard added: “You will see the great letter I got back from Windsor Castle saying she really liked it.”
The letter from Windsor Castle reads: “Dear Richard,
“I write at The Queen’s command to thank you for your letter, and for your very kind thought in sending the delightful photograph of Her Majesty.
“The Queen has much pleasure in accepting this, and bids me send you her sincere thanks.
“Yours sincerely, Lady-in-Waiting.”
Richard, who worked as the High Sheriff in Humberside in 1981, proudly displays his photograph and his accompanying letter in his home.
He added: “It’s just one of the extraordinary things to happen. It probably made me more of a royalist.”
Shrewsbury school was founded in 1552 by Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, by Royal Charter.
Edward VI is the Queen’s cousin 13 times removed.
