Candid images of the royals captured by the man Prince Philip wanted sent to the Tower

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception


He was dubbed London’s first paparazzo, and was so loathed by the Royal Family that Prince Philip suggested sending him to the Tower.
Ray Bellisario - ‘that bloody Bellisario!’, as Princess Margaret used to call him - was a constant presence at royal events in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, taking candid shots of the Queen and her family.
Ironically, even those deemed his most ‘controversial’ are unlikely to raise an eyebrow today, but in those rather more deferential times, Bellisario was a thorn in the monarchy’s side, shooting the Queen relaxing on family picnics, Prince Charles waterskiing and Princess Anne as a young bathing belle.

One¿s family seat: Prince Charles in June 1970 whizzing across the lake at Sunninghill Park on a chair balanced on a table

On the water: Charles tries his hand at more conventional waterskiing. The photograph was taken by Ray Bellisario - 'that bloody Bellisario!', as Princess Margaret used to call him 

Now aged 77, Bellisario is putting his entire 23,000-strong catalogue and its copyright up for auction in aid of charity. It is hoped the collection will raise upwards of £500,000.
Among the many interested parties, it is rumoured, are those with connections to the Royal Family who wish to buy up the lot to take them out of circulation.
It was the year after the young Queen was crowned — 1954 — that the 18-year-old novice photographer, the son of Italian immigrant ice cream sellers, took a picture of her sheltering under an umbrella that was published by several newspapers.

 

Bellisario realised he was on to something and decided to concentrate his efforts on the Royal Family, but seek something different from the rest of the press pack.
‘It was a business decision, nothing more, nothing less,’ he recalls from his home in Spain. ‘I used a mixture of common sense and contacts. Of course I got tip-offs, but I also thought about things very laterally.’
Bellisario used to infuriate Prince Philip, who frequently remonstrated with the photographer in the coarsest of terms, also ensuring that he was blacklisted by most British newspapers (although his pictures were published abroad).

It goes like this, Ma'am: The Queen (left) dances the Twist with a friend in a rare unguarded moment at Balmoral in August 1962

The innings and outs of a royal childhood: Prince Andrew bowling in a game of cricket in Holland Park, west London, in July 1967

Some of his photographs, such as the one of Prince Charles sitting on a chair while waterskiing on the lake at Sunninghill Park, Windsor, show a fun side to the Royals, rarely seen in public.

'I used a mixture of common sense and contacts. Of course I got tip-offs, but I also thought about things very laterally'
Ray Bellisario

Bellisario had been standing on a footpath by the lake when he was approached by Princess Margaret’s then husband, Lord Snowdon, who told him: ‘If you hang on we’ll do something that will really make your pictures. Keep an eye out for the chair!’
Bemused, he waited and soon Prince Charles came whizzing past, sitting on an old chair, which had been balanced on an upturned table, with grinning Snowdon at the wheel of the speedboat.
Other images, however, capture some truly historic moments — such as the Queen meeting with her supposedly estranged uncle, the Duke of Windsor, who had come to London in 1965 for eye surgery.
The ‘grey suits’ at Buckingham Palace, as courtiers are often known, publicly and emphatically denied that she had any plans to meet her uncle, given the family’s continuing bitterness over his 1936 abdication.

Costume dramas: Princess Anne (left) suns herself in Malta and Prince Charles (right) cycles in Cambridge as a student, both in 1969

On the ball: A kickabout for Prince Andrew (centre) in 1967. Ray Bellisario is putting his entire 23,000-strong catalogue and its copyright up for auction in aid of charity

The photographer said: ‘The information that I had received, however, was that he was going to the Palace every day to walk in the gardens as part of his recuperation, so I rang the palace once again. “Mr Bellisario,” said the secretary, “how can she be meeting him if there is no contact between them whatsoever?”

‘I hired a room on the 19th floor of the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, which overlooks the palace gardens, and dusted off my longest lens.
'Sure enough, one afternoon I saw the Duke walking out around the gardens, followed a few yards behind by the Queen with her corgis scampering around her legs. The picture was used in Paris Match as no British newspaper would touch it.’
Eventually, Bellisario tired of his fights with the Royals and went abroad, earning plaudits for his work covering conflicts in Northern Ireland, the Western Sahara and the Nigerian Civil War.
His work inspired him to set up a charity, Reach For Rights. The auction will fund its work providing a free legal service for those without the means to seek help, including the disabled and victims of domestic violence.

Secret meeting: The Queen meeting with her supposedly estranged uncle, the Duke of Windsor, who had come to London in 1965 for eye surgery

Then and now: Photographer Ray Bellisario is pictured in January 1963 and three months ago Bellisario used to infuriate Prince Philip

He says: ‘I am sad to be relinquishing my collection, much of which has not been seen in public before, but it is in aid of a cause about which I am passionate and will, I hope, live long after I am gone.

'Whoever buys it (my collection) will be securing a piece of history'
Ray Bellisario

‘For the past 40 years, it has been secretly moved from place to place. Whoever buys it will be securing a piece of history.’
Paul Fairweather, from auctioneers Omega, which is organising the sale, adds: ‘This is a truly remarkable collection and we expect there will be significant interest worldwide. It is such a unique collection, with nothing ever having come up for sale previously to compare it to.
‘We expect the collection to achieve somewhere in the region of between £500,000 and £1million.’
Omega Auctions is holding the sale in London on October 10, although private offers for the collection — which includes thousands of pictures of other public figures such as Winston Churchill, Brigitte Bardot and the Kennedy family — are also being invited.