Photo collection of the Royal Family

Royal FamilyGetty images

This amazing discovery offers insight into a time long gone

Hundreds of "emotional" photographs capturing the lives of the Royal Family have been found by relatives of an amateur photographer after his death.

Edward Jackson was a 72 year old from Norfolk who sadly passed away.

During his life, he enjoyed snapping photos of the Royal Family on their visits to Sandringham, and managed to take some incredible photos of the Royal Family during their time spent in Sandringham.

Jackson's nephew, Stephen, believes the photos should be used to mark Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee this year, such is their quality.

Among many thousands of images of holidays, family gatherings and landscapes were shots of the royals walking to church at Christmas and meeting crowds at the annual Sandringham Flower Show.

While Stephen knew of his uncle's hobby, he was surprised by the amount of photos there were of the family.

Mr Jackson said: "I was very aware there was going to be a huge amount as I'd only ever known him with a camera round his neck but I didn't realise just how many he had built up over the years. We've been going through hundreds of family ones in the past few weeks and it's been quite emotional and overwhelming. It's a timeline of his life, you can feel him walking around and taking pictures all day. It's been a real eye opener."

He said he planned to submit some of his uncle's best photos to Kensington Palace following an appeal for pictures to mark the Queen's 70 years on the throne.

The Jackson family hope that their uncle's photo collection will end up in an archive of other similar photos.