‘Princess Joan of Sealand’: Former carnival queen who became Princess of Sealand after she and her husband Roy set up the 'micro-nation'

During the 1970s, Roy Bates created Sealand's currency, the Sealand dollar, bearing his wife's image

Bates: she had worked as a model before she met her husband in a Southend dance hall (EPA)

On Christmas Eve 1966, a former infantry Major, Roy Bates, established his own micro-nation on an abandoned wartime sea fort off the Suffolk coast, declaring himself Prince of Sealand. He later honoured his wife Joan, who has died at the age of 87, with the most romantic gesture he could think of for her birthday, the title of “Princess” Joan of Sealand.

There followed a series of challenges which tested the family's resolve, from the Government, which sent operatives to recce Sealand, to German and Dutch “invaders”, but the Bates family, who gave themselves the motto “E Mare Libertas” [“From The Sea, Freedom”], managed to hang on to their tiny, windy principality, which at its peak it had 22 inhabitants.

Joan Collins was born in 1929 at Aldershot Barracks to Albert, an RSM in the Royal Artillery, and, Elizabeth, a housewife. With her stunning looks, Joan became a carnival queen and worked as a model. She met Roy at the famous Kursaal dance hall on Southend seafront. Although engaged, he was so smitten by Joan that he broke off the engagement, and they were married shortly after at Caxton Hall registry office in Westminster in February 1949.

In the mid-1960s a number of the Maunsell Forts, built during the Second World War to provide anti-aircraft defence and abandoned by the Army in the 1950s, were being commandeered by pirate radio stations, which operated beyond the law, with arguments usually settled by violence. In 1965, a group of DJs under Roy Bates' command, ably supported by Joan, ejected a rival crew from Knock John Fort; using the military equipment and an old US Air Force radio beacon, it became Radio Essex, the first 24-hour pirate station.

The station changed its name in October 1966 to Britain's Better Music Station after Bates was convicted of violating the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949. He was then fined £100 for continued broadcasting and the operation shut down shortly after.

He bought HM Fort Roughs, another derelict artillery installation, anchored to a sandbar just outside territorial waters; but before he could revive his transmissions, the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act of 1967 outlawed the pirates. Embracing the ancient legal doctrine of jus gentium, on 2 September 1967 Bates declared independence. Henceforth, he would be known as Prince Roy of Sealand. The platform was refurbished and he moved there with Joan and their children, Michael and Penny.

Soon after, the Bates' bleak, windswept state, with its twin towers of steel-reinforced concrete spanned by a rusting iron platform seven miles off Felixstowe, became not only res derelicta but terra nullius, effectively nobody's land, or disputed territory. When Radio Caroline claimed the platform, Bates and his crew repelled a boarding party with Molotov cocktails and warning shots.

In late 1967 the government sent the military to destroy several other abandoned wartime forts in international waters. The Bates watched as explosions sent the huge structures cartwheeling hundreds of feet in the air. Helicopters carrying explosives buzzed overhead and from a Navy tug carrying a demolition squad came shouts of “You're next!”

The following year, Golden Eye, a Royal Maritime auxiliary vessel, passed close by, its crew shouting obscenities at the children. Warning shots were fired across her bow; Bates and his son were charged and in November 1968 appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court. Summing up, the judge remarked on “this swashbuckling incident perhaps more akin to the time of Sir Francis Drake”, but decided that, since Sealand lay outside territorial waters, the courts had no jurisdiction.

During the 1970s, Bates created Sealand's constitution, flag (red and black with white diagonal stripe), passports, stamps, currency, the Sealand dollar, bearing his wife's image, and a national anthem.

Bates' unilateral declaration of statehood became his core business. The German entrepreneur, Alexander Achenbach, proposed to turn Sealand into a luxury hotel and casino, receiving in return citizenship and the office of prime minister for life. But in 1978, while the Bates were away on business, he helicoptered in a party of German and Dutch businessmen after a row with Bates over millions of Deutschmarks. But Bates and his son Michael soon retook Sealand in a pre-dawn helicopter raid.

Michael was captured and held hostage in the galley before being flown to the Netherlands, where he was released after four days. Achenbach's lawyer was captured and was only released after Germany sent a representative to Sealand to secure his release.

Money came from from selling aristocratic titles – “Lord, Lady, Baroness, from £29.99 to £199.99” – and other items, such as a square foot of the territory (for £19.99), while a mug or a football shirt of the Sealand All Stars could be bught from their online shop. And their “sovereignty” proved a magnet for those seeking sanctuary from the law, from gambling operators, whom Bates rejected, to WikiLeaks, which was reportedly exploring the possibility of moving its computer servers there. Sealand passports were also issued until 1997, when this was stopped to counter widespread fraud.

When not on Sealand, the family commuted to a flat in Southend in an old fishing boat and later bought an inflatable that could be lifted on to the platform. They eventually moved to the mainland, Michael acting as head of state and the platform in the hands of a lone caretaker. Sealand itself is used for a number of businesses, including as a base for internet servers.

In 2006 Roy and Joan retired to Spain but illness forced their return. Roy Bates died in 2012.

Joan Collins, model and businesswoman: born Aldershot 2 September 1929; married 1949 Roy Bates (died 2012; two children; died Leigh-on-Sea, Essex 10 March 2016.