It is one of the more unlikely footnotes in royal history: before Diana Spencer became the Princess of Wales, before the fairy-tale wedding, before the global fame and the tragedy, she was turned down by a finishing college in Felixstowe for being too shy.
The college in question was Felixstowe College, a respected institution for young women, run at the time by the formidable Elizabeth Manners. Manners later recalled the interview with a young Diana Spencer in vivid terms. The girl, she said, had arrived with her head down and showed no sign of lifting it.
"She just sat there with her head dropping," Manners recalled. "I said to her if she was to attend Felixstowe College she would have to speak to me, and I would have to see her face, but her head just dropped further down and there was nothing I could do."
The verdict was swift and unambiguous. "I was told there was only one thing she could do: she was very good at looking after the rabbits."
Diana was, at the time, a teenager from a privileged but unsettled background — her parents had divorced acrimoniously when she was young, and she had struggled academically. She failed her O-levels twice. The Felixstowe rejection was one of several setbacks during a period when she appeared, to the outside world, to be an unremarkable young woman with no particular prospects.
What happened next, of course, is history. Diana went on to become arguably the most famous woman of the 20th century — beloved for her warmth, her directness, and her ability to connect with people from all walks of life. The shyness that had so concerned Elizabeth Manners transformed, in time, into something else entirely: an extraordinary empathy that made her a global icon.
Felixstowe College closed in 1994. The building still stands. And somewhere in its history is a small, quiet interview room where a girl with a drooping head was told she was only good for looking after rabbits — and went on to prove the world wrong.
