Peter Townsend (RAF officer)
Peter Townsend | |
---|---|
Group Captain | |
Commands held |
|
Battles/wars | Second World War |
Awards |
|
Spouse(s) | |
Children | 5 |
Early life
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 Herbert Hatt-Cook, of Hartford Hall, Cheshire;[2][3][4] his father had married aged 42, 20 years older than his bride.[5] The Townsend family, of Devon, tended to send its sons into the church or the armed forces.[1]
From 1928 to 1932, Townsend was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, then an all-boys private school.[6]
RAF career
Townsend joined the Royal Air Force in 1930 and trained at RAF Cranwell. He was commissioned a pilot officer on 27 July 1935.[7] On graduation, he joined No. 1 Squadron RAF at RAF Tangmere flying the Hawker Fury biplane fighter. In 1936 he was posted to No. 36 Squadron RAF in Singapore, flying the Vickers Vildebeest torpedo bomber.[8] He was promoted to flying officer on 27 January 1937,[9] and returned to Tangmere that year as a member of No. 43 Squadron RAF. Townsend was promoted to flight lieutenant on 27 January 1939.[10]
In a memoir, Townsend recounted 605 Squadron's arrival at Tangmere, just before the outbreak of war. Townsend says that
Things hummed at Tangmere Cottage, just opposite the guard room, where [605's commanding officer John Willoughby de Broke and his wife Rachel] kept open house. There we spent wild evenings, drinking, singing, dancing to romantic tunes . . . we danced blithely, relentlessly towards catastrophe. . . . With one chance in five of survival - not counting the burnt and the wounded - only a handful of us would come through [i.e., survive to the end of World War II].[11]
The first enemy aircraft to crash on English soil during the Second World War fell to fighters from RAF Acklington in Northumberland on 3 February 1940, when three Hurricanes of 'B' flight, No. 43 Squadron, shot down a Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 of 4./KG 26 near Whitby. The pilots were Flight Lieutenant Townsend, Flying Officer "Tiger" Folkes and Sergeant James Hallowes. Two more He 111s were claimed by Townsend, on 22 February and 8 April, and a sixth share on 22 April. Enemy aircraft had been shot down in 1939 by the RAF from over Scotland's Scapa Flow naval base during the Luftwaffe's first raid on Britain.[12] Townsend was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in April 1940:[13]
Flight Lieutenant Peter Wooldridge Townsend (33178) In April 1940, whilst on patrol over the North Sea, Flight Lieutenant Townsend intercepted and attacked an enemy aircraft at dusk and after a running fight shot it down. This is the third success obtained by this pilot and in each instance he has displayed qualities of leadership, skill and determination of the highest order, with little regard for his own safety.
By May 1940, Townsend was one of the most capable
...The success which has been achieved has been due to Squadron Leader Townsend's unflagging zeal and leadership.
Townsend oversaw the conversion of No. 85 Squadron to night operations at
...displayed outstanding powers of leadership and organisation, combined with great determination and skill in air combat. By his untiring efforts he has contributed materially to the many successes obtained by his squadron.
Townsend was promoted to the temporary rank of
In 1944, Townsend was appointed temporary equerry to King George VI;[20] the officer had been the future king's flight instructor in the 1930s.[21] In the same year, the appointment was made permanent, and he served until 1953 when he became Extra Equerry,[22] an honorary office he held until his death. He ended his wartime service with the temporary rank of wing commander and was promoted to the permanent rank of wing commander on 1 January 1949.[23]
In August 1950, Townsend was made deputy
Townsend served as
Later life
Townsend spent much of his later years writing non-fiction books. His books include Earth My Friend (about driving/boating around the world alone in the mid-1950s), Duel of Eagles (about the
Townsend was a director of one of Gerald Carroll's Carroll Group companies.[29]
Townsend was one of several military advisors for the film Battle of Britain (1969). He also appeared in the PBS video The Windsors: A Royal Family (1994).[30][31]
Personal life
On 17 July 1941, Townsend married
After the divorce, Townsend and
When news of the relationship appeared in the press, the government posted Townsend to a position as air attaché at the British Embassy in Brussels. 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. But, mindful of the Church's teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before others." The BBC interrupted its scheduled radio programme to broadcast the statement.[34][35]
In 1959, aged 45, Townsend married 20-year-old Marie-Luce Jamagne, a Belgian national he had met the previous year.[36] They had two daughters and one son. Their younger daughter, Isabelle Townsend, became a Ralph Lauren model in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 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.[37][38]
Death and legacy
Townsend died of
In 2002, a sculpture of Townsend, designed by Guy Portelli, was erected at Townsend Square, part of the Kings Hill development, on the site formerly occupied by the RAF West Malling airfield.[40]
In popular culture
Townsend is portrayed by Ben Miles, Timothy Dalton and Hamish Riddle in the Netflix television series The Crown.[41][42]
Selected works
- Earth, my friend. Coward-McCann. 1960. OCLC 1329573.
- Duel of Eagles. Simon and Schuster. 1970. OCLC 119851.
- The last emperor: an intimate account of George VI and the fall of his empire. Simon and Schuster. 1976. OCLC 2284054.
- Time and Chance: an autobiography. Methuen. 1978. OCLC 4307096.
- The Girl in the White Ship. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 1983. OCLC 8387613.
- The Postman of Nagasaki. Collins. 1984. OCLC 12010257.
- Duel in the dark: the sequel to Duel of eagles. Harrap. 1986. OCLC 16801897.
References
- ^ a b Barrymaine, Norman (1958). The Peter Townsend Story. E. P. Dutton Ltd., p. 19.
- ^ Haileybury Register 1862–1910, Haileybury and Imperial Service College, 1910, p. 191
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "Townsend, Group Captain Peter Wooldridge". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. April 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
- ^ Royal Sisters- Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Anne Edwards, Lyons Press, 2017, p. 115
- ^ "DSO Haileybury 1912 – 1962". haileybury.com. Haileybury and Imperial Service College. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
- ^ "No. 34197". The London Gazette. 10 September 1935. p. 5743.
- ^ Townsend, P. Time and Chance 1978 Book Club Associates pp84-93 with squadron photograph
- ^ "No. 34374". The London Gazette. 20 February 1937. p. 1260.
- ^ "No. 34598". The London Gazette. 14 February 1939. p. 1072.
- ^ Peter Townsend, Time and Chance: An Autobiography (London: Collins,1978) page 108
- ^ "3rd February 1940: Peter Townsend scores first with first plane shot down over England". WWII Today. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^ "No. 34840". The London Gazette. 30 April 1940. p. 2556.
- ^ "No. 34893". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 July 1940. p. 4268.
- ^ "No. 35525". The London Gazette. 14 April 1942. p. 1649.
- ^ "No. 34940". The London Gazette. 6 September 1940. p. 5407.
- ^ "No. 35161". The London Gazette. 13 May 1941. p. 2744.
- ^ "No. 35383". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 December 1941. p. 7111.
- ISBN 978-1-78383-192-0.
- ^ "No. 36425". The London Gazette. 14 March 1944. p. 1229.
- ^ "WHO IS TOWNSEND?". Australian Women's Weekly. 23 March 1955. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
- ^ "No. 39904". The London Gazette. 3 July 1953. p. 3676.
- ^ "No. 38490". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 1948. p. 6721.
- ^ "No. 38983". The London Gazette. 1 August 1950. p. 3953.
- ^ "No. 39739". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1952. p. 53.
- ^ Tsuchiya, Takeshi (23 July 2018). "A-bomb book by Briton to be reprinted on Nagasaki anniversary". Kyodo News+. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ "Peter Townsend". Waterstones.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ "SFO looks at 500m fall of Carroll empire", Dominic O'Connell, Sunday Business, 1 October 2000, p. 1.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ "The Windsors: A Royal Family". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ Valentine Low (14 June 2022). "Adelaide Cottage, duke and duchess's new home, was scene of royal scandal". The Times. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
- ^ Frost, Katie (8 December 2017). "Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend's Love Affair – The Real Story of Margaret & Captain Townsend". www.townandcountrymag.com. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ "1955: Princess Margaret cancels wedding". "On This Day", BBC.
- ^ Nikkhah, Roya (7 November 2009). "Princess Margaret: recently unearthed letter sheds new light on decision not to marry". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Gregory, Joseph R. (2 February 2002). "Princess Margaret Dies at 71; Sister of Queen Elizabeth Had a Troubled Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
- ^ Petkanas, Christopher (October 2010). "Love Story". Vogue. p. 309.
- ^ "Le Moulin – Restoration". The Landmark Trust. Archived from the original on 31 January 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
- ^ De-la-Noy, Michael (21 June 1995). "Obituary: Gp Capt Peter Townsend". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ "Guy Portelli Sculpture Studio".
- ^ Samuelson, Kate. "'The Crown' and the True History of Princess Margaret's Doomed Romance". Time. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
- ^ Singh, Anita (25 September 2021). "'Timothy Dalton's licence to thrill Crown audiences as Princess Margaret's former lover". The Telegraph.