PANTOMIMES are known for having men dress up as queens, but it is extremely rare to find one with the Queen dressed up as a man.

However, a South Cerney auctioneers has landed a batch of photographs of a young Queen Elizabeth II starring in royal pantos as a teenager.

It is thought that the images, which have never been shown to the public before, will fetch thousands when they go under the hammer at Dominic Winters Book Auctions next week.

The photos show the Queen playing Prince Florizel in Cinderella, with her younger sister Princess Margaret, when she was just 11.

The panto was performed in front of a private audience in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle in December 1941.

Other photos show the two princesses starring in different stage productions over the next three Christmases.

In 1942 the Queen is photographed as Prince Salvador in Sleeping Beauty and as Aladdin in the following year’s production.

The photographs, which were signed by the two princesses, are being sold as part of an archive collected by Cyril Woods, a fellow actor in the royal Pantos and a lifelong friend on the Queen until his death in 2001.

The collection of almost 60 photos is expected to fetch around £16,000 when they are auctioned in the Cotswolds.

Chris Albury, senior valuer at Dominic Winters, said: “This has to be the biggest collection of such photographs to ever be discovered and put up for sale.

“You see the odd signed photograph and the odd programme, but to have this many is really remarkable.

“It is a lovely collection because it really shows the end of childhood for the young pricness. I doubt that man of these photos are known or have ever been published.”

The hoard also includes personal letters from the Queen that Cyril inherited from Hubert Tanner, headmaster at the Royal School.

The lot will be auctioned at Dominic Winters Book Auctions in South Cerney on Wednesday, December 11.