SHARING MEMORIES OF PRINCESS DIANA CHARLES SPENCER GETS CANDID ABOUT HIS TRAUMATIC SCHOOL DAYS AND HOW HIS NEW BOOK HELPED HIM 'RECLAIM' HIS CHILDHOOD

When he looks back on his early years, Charles Spencer finds great comfort in the memories he has of his late sister, Diana, Princess of Wales.

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"She was always very protective of me," he tells Hello! Canada, adding that, as the two youngest siblings in the Spencer family (separated by less than three years), they grew especially close following their parents' divorce.

"My mother [Frances] left home when we were young I was two or three, and Diana would have been five or sixso we were very much in it together," he says.

Their tight-knit bond is portrayed, too, in the opening chapter of Charles's new memoir, A Very Private School, during which he shares a touching anecdote about his first day at Silfield - the Norfolk school that he and Diana both attended before being sent off to their respective boarding schools.

According to their former teacher Miss Lowe, Diana was ever the supportive sister that day and "just wouldn't settle" in class until she knew her little brother was OK. After she'd been given permission to go and check on him in his classroom, the future People's Princess returned with a "beaming smile" before declaring, with relief in her voice, "Thank you, Charles seems to be doing fine!"

The brief but poignant story is an early illustration of Diana's compassionate nature, for which she was later beloved by millions around the world.