Candid snaps taken over four decades show the Royal Family away from the public gaze

A remarkable archive of more than 4,000 candid photographs of the Royal Family taken over four decades - and away from the public gaze - has gone up for auction.

The fascinating images were taken by royal photographer John Scott who was given unprecedented access to the Windsors from the 1950s to the 1980s. Among the incredible unseen slides and photos are images of Prince Charles meeting the cast of the US TV show MASH and the Queen in a relaxed group with Lord Mountbatten at a horse show.

Through the archive it is possible to watch a generation of Royals progress from childhood to maturity through the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.

One fascinating image shows a young Prince Andrew, aged about 12, standing opposite Sarah Ferguson, who would become the Duchess of York after they tied the knot in 1986. In the foreground, his younger brother Prince Edward joyfully plays with the Queen's niece Sarah Armstrong-Jones, now Lady Sarah Chatto. Standing in the same picture are the Queen and Sarah Ferguson's older sister Jane.

Another photo shows a bearded Prince Charles, in his twenties, on horseback looking strikingly similar to his son Prince Harry.There are also dozens of informal snaps of Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and Prince Philip.

Scott lived an extraordinary life himself. He was a Yugoslavian aristocrat who fled his native Serbia during the Second World War after it was occupied by the Nazis. His actual name was Colonel Vassa Voynovich and he commanded a platoon on the Russian front aged just 17 during the First World War.





MailOnline