King Charles: New technology brings old pictures of the monarch’s childhood back to life

Growing up under the post-war media’s gaze means that Charles III ascends to the throne as undoubtedly the most photographed new king in history.

But this is the monarch as you have never seen him.

Newly colourised photos of his infant years and early life have been released by Buckingham Palace ahead of his coronation on Saturday.

The snapshots are poignant pointers to the life of duty and formality that lay before the shy and sensitive heir to the throne. There are pictures of the young prince in a pram with sister Anne listening to piped bands, saluting the Trooping the Colour ceremony as a toddler and with, his father Prince Philip by his side, turning up with a rictus smile to the Scottish school where he was relentlessly bullied.

He can be seen in his mother’s arms after his christening at Buckingham Palace on December 15, 1948.

There is a another heart-warming image of him with his smiling grandmother, the Queen Mother, who appears to be ensuring he doesn’t grab her string of pearls.

One striking image shows Charles, on his second birthday, dressed in an outfit that no infant commoner has ever worn before or since getting some fresh air in the park in 1950 with his nanny Mabel Anderson, the woman who served as his surrogate mother while young Queen Elizabeth II was away on royal duties.

Mrs Anderson — by royal custom she was always addressed as Mrs despite being unmarried — was given the role after the dismissal of another nanny, the famously bossy Mrs Lightfoot.

She had a reputation for “tormenting the palace kitchen” in controlling what Charles ate, according to a royal biographer, and made the mistake of overruling a request by the Queen that he be served a favourite pudding for dinner.

It was Mrs Anderson to whom Charles would utter his first word — “Nana” — and their separation when he was later sent to boarding school was to his great distress.

Gordonstoun in the Scottish Highlands was the educational institution chosen by Prince Philip who believed the regimen of freezing showers and tough love that he himself had experienced when he was head boy would be just the ticket to knock some of the softer edges off his first-born son.

Charles, pictured greeting the principal, would later liken the school to a WWII prison camp calling it “Colditz in kilts”.

Although he was to soften his opinion later in life, such was his unhappiness there that his parents agreed to send him to Australia for two years at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop campus. There he enjoyed the physical challenges and outdoor lifestyle and was teased but not bullied. It probably helped that he was two years older than most of his classmates.

At a farewell function, his classmates gave him “three cheers ... for a Pommy bastard!”. Charles later recalled his time at Timbertop as his best school years.

“While I was here I had the Pommy bits bashed off me. Like chips off an old block.

“By God, it was good for the character.”

The new King has already shown inclusiveness and a desire to modernise the monarchy is part of that character.

While the coronation of his mother was the first to be televised, Charles has ensured his ceremony will also break barriers. Female clergy will play a role and leaders from other faiths will have an active part in the Church of England service.