She then married the 5th Marquess Camden and had five happy years before he died in 1983. Peter Townsend was born 1914 in Rangoon, Burma, and was educated at Haileybury School. Three years later, in 1995, Townsend died from cancer. And Townsend could scarcely keep her in the manner to which she had been accustomed. He had met her in his role as an equerry to her father, King George VI. Isabelle Townsend and her family renovated and lived at Le Moulin de la Tuilerie in Gif-sur-Yvette, where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor had once lived. Mon 8 Jun 2009 19.01 EDT. Rosemary Pratt, Marchioness Camden. Princess Margaret, 64, who is believed to have always considered Group Captain Townsend the great love of her life, was said by a spokesman at Buckingham Palace to be "sad" at the news of his death. IE 11 is not supported. Everyone knew my father was seeing the Princess. . "After Princess Margaret was denied marriage, it backfired and more or less ruined Margaret's life. The following year, Princess Margaret met with Townsend at a luncheon at Kensington Palace in 1992. They married in 1968, by which stage The Who had made a name for themselves with hits such as My Generation and Substitute. Thats when I really fell in love with him.. He was equerry to King George VI from 1944 to 1952 and held the same position for Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 1953. Anyone who knew the diffident Townsend and the headstrong Margaret would assume the move was because she wanted it. Later on, in 1959, he married Belgian woman Marie-Luce Jamagne. [11] Townsend was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in April 1940:[12]. Townsend, a hero in World War II, was a commoner, 16 years older than the princess, and he'd been divorced. Group Capt. Earlier in 1947, Margaret and her sister, Elizabeth, had accompanied the King and Queen on a three-month State tour of Southern Africa. According to the New York Times, the former couple "corresponded from time to time but did not see each other" until meeting by chance at an official function. A spokesman at Buckingham Palace relayed that Princess Margaret was "sad" after hearing the news, according to The New York Times. However, after the news broke out . [18], In 1944, Townsend was appointed temporary equerry to King George VI;[19] the officer had been the future king's flight instructor in the 1930s. VANESSA KIRBY AS PRINCESS MARGARET IN THE CROWN. or your mothers rockstar?. "Mindful of the Church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others. [40][41], Haileybury Register 18621910, Haileybury and Imperial Service College, 1910, p. 191, Royal Sisters- Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Anne Edwards, Lyons Press, 2017, p. 115. The story goes that the princess' father George VI had interviewed Peter for a position on his equerry.. Margaret was just 14 when they first met, and Peter was 30. Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend, a former Battle of Britain pilot, fell in love when he was an equerry first to George VI and then to Elizabeth II. PRINCESS MARGARET ATTENDED THE BRITISH INDUSTRIES FAIR IN LONDON WITH CAPTAIN TOWNSEND, 1953. When Princess Margaret turned 25 and was no longer bound to do what her sister told her, it was widely expected that she and Group Captain Townsend would announce their engagement. ", "She could have married me only if she had been prepared to give up everything -- her position, her prestige, her privy purse," he wrote. He sold his war medals for $35,200 and set up a fund for children who have suffered in war. Counting calories IS king when it comes to losing weight - NOT fasting, study finds. It was his divorced status which eventually made it impossible for Margaret to marry him, as both the Church of England and parliament suggested they were firmly against the match. Ahead, see the historical overview of Margaret and Townsend's tempestuous love story, from its sweet beginnings to its heartbreaking end. He was 80 years old and had been ill for some time. He asked to be moved next door to Margaret. For a girl of just 17, she was understandably nervous as she sent the champagne bottle crashing against the bow of the 28,700-ton liner Edinburgh Castle. 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Despite the separation, Margaret and Townsend continued their correspondence and when his service ended 1955, he returned to London and the couple reunited. He continued to lead the unit on the ground even after this wound resulted in his big toe being amputated, and he returned to operational flying on 21 September. [17] He later became commanding officer of RAF Drem in Scotland in April 1942 and commanded No. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Youll hear cases argued for the likes of Stranger Things, Killing Eve and Mindhunter etc.often. Still, Margarets love for a time transcended royal agendasand she continued her romance with Townsend for several more years. The story of the Princess's passionate, but ultimately doomed, affair with her father's equerry, Battle of Britain flying ace Group Captain Peter Townsend a married man with children . Townsend had been ill for quite some time when he died in Paris at the age of 80. The forbidden romance between Princess Margaret (b. August 1930 February 2002) and Captain Peter Wooldridge Peter Townsend (November 1914 June 1995) was revisited in its final chapters throughout the fifth season of The Crownthough their love story in real life was sadly more doomed. In October, Townsend also accompanies Margaret on trip to Belfast, where he requests have his room at Hillsborough Castle moved next to hers. Peter Townsend," the statement said. "I simply hadn't the weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost.". In his book "Time and Chance," Townsend wrote, "It was then that we made the mutual discovery of how much we meant to one another. Divorcees suffered severe disapproval in the social atmosphere of the time and could not remarry in the Church of England if their former spouse was still alive. I asked my daughter's teachers not to call her a boy they reported me to social services. The story of the Princesss passionate, but ultimately doomed, affair with her fathers equerry, Battle of Britain flying ace Group Captain Peter Townsend a married man with children is one of the best-known episodes of the Queens reign, and has been fertile ground for the Netflix series The Crown. Who is your father's sports idol?. Catching up on previous seasons of The Crown before diving into .css-gegin5{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#9a0500;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-gegin5:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}season five? According to Townsend, he and Margaret confessed their feelings to one another in the period that followed. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. PERSONAL GIFT. Townshend first met Miss Astley, the daughter of composer Ted Astley, at Ealing Art School in West London in the early 60s. Townsend was born in Rangoon, Burma, to doctor's son Lieutenant Colonel Edward Copleston Townsend, of the Indian Army,[1] and his wife, Gladys, daughter of H. Hatt-Cook, of Hartford Hall, Cheshire;[2][3][4] his father had married aged 42, 20 years older than his bride. What remained unsaid was that marrying Townsend would have meant Margaret sacrificing her royal status, its privileges and perks. rank group captain is equivalent to colonel. "But, mindful of the Church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others. He later encountered complications during his relationship with Princess Margaret, as divorcees werent allowed to remarry in the Church of England. The two filed for divorce in the winter of 1952. . I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend," she added. Long before Kate and Diana, Princess Margaret was the royal pin-up, a hugely popular and glamorous figure. On 17 July 1941 at Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, she married Peter Townsend (1914-1995). Armstrong-Jones and Margaret filed for divorce in 1978, the first divorce in the royal family since Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon in the 16th century. "I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage," Margaret said in a statement to BBC Radio at the time. That gesture was a sure sign that rumors of their romance were true. He was mentioned in despatches the same month. "It is only by seeing him in this way that I feel I can properly decide whether I can marry him or not," she wrote. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. "She was a girl of unusual, intense beauty, confined as it was in her short, slender figure and centered about large purple-blue eyes, generous, sensitive lips, and a complexion as smooth as a peach," Peter is said to have recalled. Olivia Colman is awesome. 611 Squadron RAF, a Spitfire unit. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, their younger daughter Isabelle Townsend rose to fame as a Ralph Lauren model. I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage. Relationship status Married (Since 2000) Group Captain Peter Townsend to marry Belgian girl. ", Twenty-three years later, in 1978, Townsend releases his official autobiography, Time and Chance, in which he expresses his ultimate peace with Margaret's decision. The princess' union was ill-fated. 6th October 1947: At Hillborough Castle, front row, from left to right: the Marchioness of Hamilton, His Excellency the Earl of Granville, (the Governor), Princess Margaret Rose (1930 - 2002), Her Excellency the Countess of Granville, and the Marquis of Hamilton. The Independent wrote in Townsend's obituary that "He developed, too, a perceptible sense of relief that things turned out the way they did", because "for men like Mark Phillips and Princess Margaret's eventual husband Anthony Armstrong-Jones, [marrying into the royal family] turned out to be an almost impossible undertaking". The ten-episode third season arrived on the streaming service on Sunday, November 17th 2019 and has already attracted praise across social media. By co-incidence, Edwin had often opened for Townshend's father, Cliff's band. Reports of her visit to the Province described women and children fainting with excitement at seeing her. There are genuinely so many titles we could put forward, but its clear that some would be mentioned far more frequently than others. The romance between Peter Townsend and Princess Margaret captured the public's attention in the 1950s. The divorce action could just as easily have gone the other way.. Advertisement 1971), both of whom were from families of the landed gentry. He was later leader of No. L/S press photographers crowding round Townsend and his young fianc Marie Luce Jamagne (Marie-Luce Jamagne). For his part, Townsend later claimed to have not developed romantic feelings for the Princess until 1951, by which time she was 21 and he was safely divorced. "It is only by seeing him in this way that I feel I can properly decide whether I can marry him or not," she writes. Pete Townshend is fighting to save his 40million fortune after his wife of 40 years filed for divorce. , updated Why didn't they ever marry? Peter Townsend married Rosemary Pawle in 1941 and the couple divorced in 1952. Princess Margaret was a teenager when she first met Peter Townsend. But though Group Captain Townsend was dashing and distinguished, he was also divorced, making him anathema to a royal family, and a government, still reeling from Edward VIII's abdication in 1936 to marry an American, Wallis Simpson, who was divorced. Coles worker fights a woman allegedly trying to steal groceries, Jax the Staffy is rescued after being stuck in a cave for two days, Rapidly growing cemetery filled with Vladimir Putin's 'prisoner army', Locals desperately smash windows of overturned double-decker bus. A decorated pilot in the Royal Air force, Group Capt. Peter Townsend was appointed to the royal household in 1944 by King George VI after serving in World War II. Margaret does not receive approval from the queen. "I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Capt. He worked as equerry to King George VI and was married with two children, but entertained an ongoing affair with Princess Margaret. Over on Twitter, one viewer wrote: Finished Season 3 of #TheCrown and I thought it was as spectacular as the first two seasons. He was Equerry to King George VI between 1944 and 1952, later . "SFO looks at 500m fall of Carroll empire", Dominic O'Connell, Last edited on 22 November 2022, at 23:32, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon Romance with Peter Townsend, "Townsend, Peter Woolridge (19141995), air force officer and official in the royal household", "Townsend, Group Captain Peter Wooldridge", "3rd February 1940: Peter Townsend scores first with first plane shot down over England", "A-bomb book by Briton to be reprinted on Nagasaki anniversary", "Peter Townsend, at 65, Settles In as a Successful Author; Relentless Horror Assistance From World Agencies 'Longing for Revenge' Off Around the World", "TELEVISION REVIEW; Kings, Queens and Commoners: A Tasting of the Windsor Stew", "Adelaide Cottage, duke and duchess's new home, was scene of royal scandal", "Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend's Love Affair The Real Story of Margaret & Captain Townsend", "1955: Princess Margaret cancels wedding", "Princess Margaret: recently unearthed letter sheds new light on decision not to marry", "Princess Margaret Dies at 71; Sister of Queen Elizabeth Had a Troubled Life", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Townsend_(RAF_officer)&oldid=1123293115, This page was last edited on 22 November 2022, at 23:32. In 1936 he was posted to No. "The Queen, with great sadness, has asked for the following announcement to be made immediately. Group Captain Peter Townsend of the RAF arrives in London with his wife Marie-Luce, 20th April 1960. Find out about Group Captain Peter Townsend & Marie Luce Townsend Married, children, joint family tree & history, ancestors and ancestry. Salary in 2020. It was one of the most gripping love stories of royal . He was equerry to King George VI from 1944 to 1952 and held the same position for Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 1953. As Princess Margaret herself later told a confidante: We rode together every morning in that wonderful country, in marvellous weather. 22:27 GMT 27 Dec 2017 1915Offizier, GB- mit seiner Frau bei einem Spaziergangin London.1966 Group Captain Peter Townsend of the RAF arrives in London with his wife Marie-Luce, 20th April 1960. The royal family and the public now feel that they've gone too far in the other direction. "Her Royal Highness, The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and the Earl of Snowdon, after two years of separation, have agreed that their marriage should be formally ended. Gregor Townsend is delighted to be able to allow Ruaridh McConnochie to fulfil an "ambition" after including the England cap in his Scotland squad for the upcoming Six Nations.. After Jack Dempsey converted from Australia to Scotland earlier this season, the Scots have again taken advantage of world rugby's new eligibility ruling that allows players to switch international allegiance . The new cast carried on the perfection of their predecessors! He had found notes among official papers of the visit recording that the Group Captain had asked for a different bedroom to the one he had been allocated. He rarely spoke publicy of his relationship with Princess Margaret, but did refer to it in his 1978 autobiography, "Time and Chance. At that time, the Princess was third in line for the throne, after the Queen's two children at the time, Charles and Anne. Extraordinary moment shirtless Michael Clarke and Karl Stefanovic face off in a wild late-night scuffle - as More misery for NHS patients as thousands of nurses stage two-day strike across England: Health chiefs warn Is it time for the Government to give the nurses a better pay deal? Townsend was promoted to the substantive rank of squadron leader on 1 September 1940. Anyone can read what you share. Under Review. Oct. 10, 1959 - 12-10-59 Peter Townsend and his wife to be. With Townsend, she had two sons, Giles (1942-2015) and Hugo (born 1945). "Times had changed, there was so much unhappiness on all sides, and the tabloids had become so powerful that there was no keeping anything private.". Townsend and his wife . What was Charles and Diana's age difference? 1 Squadron RAF at RAF Tangmere flying the Hawker Fury biplane fighter. 605 Squadron RAF, a night fighter unit, and attended the staff college from October 1942. Princess Margaret & Peter Townsend's Love Affair, Diana on the Fayed Yacht in Saint Tropez in '97, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. On 31 October 1955, Princess Margaret issued a statement ending the relationship: "I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage. "I simply hadn't the weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost.". 1953: Peter Townsend proposes to Princess Margaret Townsend proposed to Margaret in 1953. Promoted to the Province described women and children fainting with excitement at seeing her Killing Eve and Mindhunter.... The streaming service on Sunday, November 17th 2019 and has already attracted praise across social.. 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Church of England ahead, see the historical overview of Margaret and Townsend could scarcely keep in... Marry Group Capt glamorous figure meant Margaret sacrificing her royal status, its privileges and perks she married... Royal Air force, Group Capt Paris at the age of 80 confidante: we together. Wife Marie-Luce, 20th April 1960 and perks VI between 1944 peter townsend and wife 1952, later by King George.. That rumors of their romance were true start of online publication in 1996 to Townsend, she Peter! Ted Astley, at Ealing Art School in West London in the Air! We rode together every morning in that wonderful country, in 1995, Townsend died from.!