Make mine a stiff one. An instruction from the Queen Mother asking her most faithful servant to mix her two strong measures of gin and Dubonnet was among a bundle of such notes sold for £16,000 yesterday.

The notes were among nearly 700 lots of royal memorabilia collected over five decades by William Tallon, better known as “Backstairs Billy”, that were put up for auction.

The bouffant-haired aide, resplendent in medals and tails, was ever-present at virtually every public appearance by the Queen Mother and was in royal service for 52 years. He died last year, aged 72.

The Queen Mother’s drinks order was scribbled in blue ink at Birkhall, her home on the Balmoral estate.

“I think that I will take two small bottles of Dubonnet and gin with me this morning, in case it is needed,” she wrote.

The note is undated so it is difficult to discern where she was heading. It is known the Queen Mother preferred a mix of nine measures of gin to one of the French aperitif.

Another note asked Tallon “to push some of the snow off the balustrade on the balcony, as the birds have nowhere to perch”.

There was an audible gasp when the notes went for £16,000 to a telephone bidder, followed by applause.

Eight letters from Diana, Princess of Wales, were also up for sale. These included her thanking Tallon for putting flowers in Clarence House on the eve of her wedding in July 1981, and replies to his congratulations following the birth of her sons, William and Harry.

Diana’s notes caused a significant stir as they went under the hammer for a total of £18,740.

An anonymous British collector, bidding by telephone, snapped up five of the letters, including the one written following the birth of William. The note is dated June 28, 1982, seven days after the prince’s birth, and sold for £5,000.

The auction of poignant memorabilia, which took place in the unlikely setting of an industrial estate in Colchester, Essex, was selling the items on behalf of Tallon’s estate. The three beneficiaries are a relative and two of Tallon’s friends.

Many of the items listed early in the sale, including Christmas cards from the Queen Mother, were snapped up by bidders in a packed auction room for about £60 a time.

A portrait of the Queen Mother by the artist Sir James Gunn was the highest selling item at £30,000. Painted in 1945, it shows the Queen Mother sitting on a gold chair wearing an all-black evening dress and a pearl necklace.

A painting by the artist Edward Seago called Half Tide on the Orwell sold for £20,000. The sale, which ended last night, raised £444,634, almost twice the original estimate.

Stephen Lansley, a solicitor friend of Tallon and executor of his estate, said that the page had written in his will that certain items would be given to named individuals after his death.

“Today, it’s a sad day to see all these other items go,” he said. Lansley revealed he was astonished by how much the handwritten notes from the Queen Mother had sold for, but added, “I think it outlines the interest and the affection people have for the Queen Mother.

“Working for the royal family was Billy’s life and his hobby. I don’t think he set out to collect all these items but he had an eye for beautiful things.”

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