Earl Spencer posts tribute to his late mother wishing her a happy ‘heavenly’ birthday – and sharing photograph of Princess Diana at her christening

Earl Spencer has paid an emotional tribute to his late mother on what would have been her 88th birthday.

Spencer, 59, who lives on the family estate, Althorp in Northamptonshire, took to Instagram yesterday to share a selection of newspaper cuttings about his mother, Frances Shand Kydd, who passed away in 2004.

An article announcing the birth of the late Princess Diana, Charles’ younger sister, is also seen nestled in the memory box filled with pictures.

One of the photographs, captioned ‘Lord and Lady Althorp’s third daughter christened,’ showed the mother of the Prince of Wales, 42, and Duke of Sussex, 39, as a newborn.

Diana is wrapped in a white blanket while her parents proudly look down at her. 

Earl Spencer (pictured) shared a selection of photographs to mark his late mother’s 88th birthday yesterday

Princess Diana is photographed on the day of her christening with her mother and father in the memory box (pictured top left)

Earl Spencer, who still resides at the family home, Althorp in Northamptonshire, shared the photo of his late sister, who was killed aged 36 in a car crash in Paris in 1997

Charles captioned the post: ‘Remembering my mother, with love and gratitude, on what would have been her 88th birthday.’

Hundreds flocked to the comment section to support Charles and to offer his mother a happy ‘heavenly birthday’.

Frances Shand Kydd wed the 8th Earl of Spencer in 1954 at 18 before divorcing in 1969.

In 1968, Frances lost a custody battle for Diana, Charles and their sisters Jane and Sarah and tried again in 1971 to regain custody of Johnnie Spencer but lost again.

The mother of Diana went to live with her new husband in Scotland after losing her first custody battle for her children, in which she was dubbed ‘the bolter’.

Diana and her mother had a rocky relationship and weren’t on speaking terms before she died in 1997.

In his Instagram stories, Earl Spencer also posted a photo of himself with his older sister Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia McCorquodale

It comes after the announcement that Princess Diana’s brother will open up about the ‘trauma’ of being sent to boarding school aged eight in his highly anticipated memoir – which multiple outlets have dubbed as one to watch in 2024.

Earl Spencer will recount the ‘culture of cruelty’ he experienced at Maidwell Hall, a preparatory school in Northampton, and provide ‘important insights into an antiquated boarding system’ in A Very Private School, set for release in March.

The Guardian has flagged it on a list of ‘nonfiction to look out for’ this year – alongside titles including Salman Rushdie‘s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder – to add to the ‘the now many literary denunciations of boarding school’.

It is also listed as one of the ‘best’ picks for this year by The Independent, and suggested as an anticipated memoir by the BBC.

The Financial Times have recommended it in their article on what to read in 2024.

According to Gallery Books – an imprint of publishing company Simon & Schuster – Charles will ‘presents a candid reckoning with his past and a reclamation of his childhood’.

A post on their Instagram in October added: ‘A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed, first-hand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Charles Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system.’

Leaving for boarding school aged eight, Charles had six months of sleepless nights before heading to Maidwell Hall, where pupils judged to be stupid or lazy were ‘really unpleasantly’ beaten with a cane on their bare buttocks.

Princess Diana’s brother will open up about the ‘trauma’ of being sent to boarding school aged eight in his highly anticipated memoir, which multiple outlets have dubbed as one to watch in 2024

‘I said I wanted to go to a state school because it must be preferable to 13-week blocks away in a rather cold and unpleasant place,’ he told TES magazine. 

‘To be totally candid, I think, coming from my background, teachers had absolutely no expectations of me,’ he said. 

‘They just thought I’d be fine in life anyway. I was lucky enough to drift through.’ 

But the school’s former headmaster John Paul has previously suggested that Earl Spencer may have exaggerated how bad his time there was.

‘He’s been in constant touch with the school ever since, so I don’t think he could have been that unhappy,’ Mr Paul said in 1992.

And it would seem that Charles’s experiences at Maidwell Hall would stick with him decades later.

‘Fifty years ago tonight, I spent my first ever night away from my family,’ he wrote in a post on X in 2022.

‘I was 8, & I’d been sent away to boarding school. It was part of a family tradition. 12 September 1972 has been with me ever since.

‘I have 7 children. None of them have been forced to go to boarding school.’

Rather than going to state school, Charles headed to Eton College, during which time his sister Diana married Prince Charles when she was 20 years old.

He then gained a place at Magdalen College, Oxford to study modern history but admitted he committed very little time to his degree.