A Manchester student was left ‘flabbergasted’ after making the sensational discovery of a letter from King George V that lay dormant in the school archives for more than 100 years.
Dean Whaley, 11, found the letter in a historical volume on the Manchester Grammar School (MGS) archive bookshelves.
The inquisitive pupil alerted the school archivist who immediately sent it off to the House of Windsor.
The Royal Archives at Windsor confirmed the letter’s authenticity.
The intriguing letter, which originates from ‘Marlborough House’ and is signed off as ‘George’, dates back to 1878, when George V was a mere 13 years old.
Initial research suggests that the recipient was the admiral Lord Charles Beresford, as it is addressed: ‘My dear Lord Charles’.
The Royal Archives at Windsor confirmed that the ’thank you’ letter was penned by the young George V.
Explaining how he discovered the letter, Dean said: “I was undertaking an ‘Introduction to Archives’ session at School in which we were looking at documents relating to World War One.
“We were then left free to roam the room and that’s when I found the letter in the book. I was surprised that no one had spotted it before; it must have been there for some years.”
“When I found out it was written by one of our Monarchs I was flabbergasted.”
The archivist at MGS, Joanna Badrock, says they are still piecing together how the school came to be in possession of the piece of history.
“This is a truly unique find and we’ve all been fascinated by its content. We are still unsure how it ended up in our archives, but the fact that George was given an owl by Beresford may be of some significance,” she said.
“We owe a great deal of gratitude to Dean and I hope he can help us unearth more great finds in the future.”
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