TO MOST observers Harold Brown was the archetypal Jeeves to the Prince and Princess of Wales, and later to Princess Margaret, during his 30 years in royal service.

Typically, he announced yesterday that, unlike his colleague Paul Burrell, he would not be selling his memoirs.

However, as a member of the homosexual “mafia” at the royal palaces, he has been implicated in uncorroborated tales of unsavoury incidents.

The jury trying Mr Burrell was told that Mr Brown had allegedly been selling clothing belonging to Diana in the year after she died. Items were destined for a New York eccentric who kept a shrine to her and who had placed an order for a hat worn by her at Ascot.

The jury was also told of a male friend of Mr Brown’s who had paraded in the hat, a dress and a pair of high-heeled shoes at a drunken New Year’s Eve party in 1998 after he had allegedly collected clothes from the butler at Kensington Palace.

It was alleged that the cross-dresser was told to be “careful with the hat” because it was “Harold’s retirement”. The allegations were subject to reporting restrictions during the Burrell trial in October and can be disclosed only today.

Christopher Warwick, Princess Margaret’s authorised biographer, said of the story: “It’s an interesting piece of information but it’s not sourced. I treat those things with a healthy dollop of cynicism.”

Mr Brown remained too inscrutable yesterday to be drawn into questions about his life in service, but he is not short of well-connected friends who have been speaking on his behalf since his arrest for allegedly stealing the £500,000 model dhow.

The line they took was that the loyal and discreet servant had such refined tastes that he could never have brought himself to touch the wretched objet d’art. One royal source said: “His quarters were beautifully decorated and filled with his collection of royal mementoes. This boat looked a very vulgar object. His tastes would be far too refined to covet such a thing.”

The Salad Days composer Julian Slade, whose 70th birthday party was hosted by Mr Brown at Kensington Palace in the summer of 2000, said that all the allegations of theft were “unbelievable and completely out of character”.

In Mr Brown’s grace-andfavour apartment photographs of Queen Victoria and her children lined the walls alongside signed pictures of Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince William and Prince Harry. He had a grand piano and always flew first class. His acknowledged expertise on Queen Victoria once led the Duke of Edinburgh to ask him to catalogue the 19th-century archives of a German relative.

Mr Brown has spent all his adult life in royal service after a brief spell as an assistant in the books department at Harrods. He was brought up in modest circumstances in Perth, Western Australia, and nursed an early ambition to work for the Royal Family, going to London in his late teens.

Initially he was hired as a footman at Buckingham Palace. He became butler to the Prince of Wales before the Prince’s wedding to Diana and then butler to both of them at Kensington Palace.

Highly regarded by the Prince, he travelled with the royal couple on foreign tours. In 1998 the Prince invited him to Prince William’s confirmation at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

After the royal couple’s separation in 1992, he chose to remain with the Princess, sharing his duties with Mr Burrell. A falling-out with his royal mistress followed, and he was made redundant in 1995, giving way to his friend Mr Burrell, with whom he has remained on cordial terms.

Mr Brown, who now lives in Tunbridge Wells, quickly found fresh employment as butler to Princess Margaret, said to be one of the “cushiest” of royal jobs. He often accompanied her to Mustique.

He was suspended after his arrest, but returned after three months to the side of the Queen’s ailing sister, who was said to have missed his “kindly” touch. He was made redundant after her death in February, but last month he was working for her son, Viscount Linley.

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