Simon Towneley

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Towneley (family)

KCVO KCSG JP
Born
Simon Peter Edmund Cosmo William Koch de Gooreynd

(1921-12-14)14 December 1921
St George Hanover Square, London, England
Died11 November 2022(2022-11-11) (aged 100)
Cliviger, Lancashire, England
Alma materWorcester College, Oxford
OccupationAuthor
Spouse
Lady Mary Fitzherbert
​
​
(died 2001)​
Children7, including
Sir Peregrine Worsthorne
(brother)

Sir Simon Peter Edmund Cosmo William Towneley

né Koch de Gooreynd; 14 December 1921 – 11 November 2022) was a British author who served as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire from 1976 to 1997.[1]

Early life and education

Towneley was born in St George Hanover Square, London, on 14 December 1921,[2] as the elder son of a British father of Belgian stock,[3] Alexander Louis Wynand Koch de Gooreynd, and a British-Belgian mother, Priscilla Reyntiens. His mother was the daughter of Lady Alice Josephine, second daughter of Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon, and Maj. Robert Reyntiens [nl], a member of the International Olympic Committee.[4] His mother was asked to give birth as quietly as possible, as Ignacy Jan Paderewski was downstairs giving a piano recital at the time.[5]

The family name was changed to Worsthorne when his father attempted to enter British politics, but his parents divorced soon after.[6] His younger brother was Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, the journalist.[7]

Priscilla Reyntiens remarried to

Second World War, and he returned to Worcester afterward to complete a music doctorate.[6]

He later changed his surname to Towneley Worsthorne and finally Towneley by deed poll, on 28 May 1955.[8]

Career

During the Second World War, Worsthorne served in the

PoW.[5]

From 1949 until 1955 he lectured in the history of music at Worcester College.[10] In 1954 (under the name Simon Towneley Worsthorne) he published Venetian Opera in the 17th Century, a seminal study of the field, which played a significant role in the remarkable revival of the Venetian opera repertory in the latter 20th century.[6]

In Towneley's youth, Dyneley Hall in Cliviger (near Burnley), Lancashire, had been the home of his grandmother (Alice Reyntiens), but in 1952 he inherited it along with a landholding known as the Worsthorne Estate.[10] This is a portion of the Towneley Estate that was divided between the three daughter's of Charles Towneley in 1885. However it is not the part inherited by Towneley's great-grandmother. The Worsthorne Estate was inherited by Towneley's grandmother, in 1921, from her cousin Cosmo Gordon-Lennox.[11]

He was a Lancashire County Councillor between 1961 and 1964.[12]

Between 1969 and 1986, Towneley was the first

Granada Television from 1981 until 1992.[10] He was also an important figure in the establishment of the Royal Northern College of Music in 1972, and remained a governor there for many years.[13]

Appointments

Towneley was a

Historic Churches Preservation Trust and a member of the council of the University of Manchester.[5]

Honours

KCVO

Towneley was appointed a Knight of the Order of Saint John in October 1976.[15] He was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1994 New Year Honours.[16]

He was also awarded the Catholic honour of being appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.[6]

In 1990, Towneley was only the fifth person to be awarded a companionship of the Royal Northern College of Music.[17]

Personal life

Towneley married his second cousin Mary Fitzherbert, the third of six children of Cuthbert Fitzherbert, from a well-off recusant English Roman Catholic family. She was a keen endurance equestrian, repeating Dick Turpin's ride from London to York and opening up what became known as the Mary Towneley Loop on the Pennine Bridleway.[18]

Monument to Lady Mary Towneley on the route of Mary Towneley Loop in Cliviger.

The couple had seven children; one son and six daughters:[12]

  • Alice Mary Towneley, born 1956, married Michael O'Neill in 1986.
  • Charlotte Mary Towneley, born 1957, married Arthur French in 1986.
  • Katharine Mary Towneley, born 1958, married William Grant in 1985, writer.
  • Peregrine Henry Towneley, born 1962, married Sarah Trimble in 1998.
  • Victoria Mary Towneley, born 1964, married Edward Bowen-Jones in 1992.
  • Cosima Cecilia Towneley, born 1967, Lancashire County Councillor.
  • Frances Teresa Towneley, born 1969, married Daniel Scoular in 1997.

At Dyneley, the couple employed George Pace to design an extension to the hall, which included the creation of a tiny oratory,[6] reputedly the smallest in the country. Each Sunday for many years, a Jesuit priest wearing pre-Reformation vestments thought to have come from Whalley Abbey, would say Mass in it.[13] A long-time member of the International Dendrology Society, Towneley supported many local horticultural projects and created an impressive garden at the hall.[10]

Lady Towneley died in 2001 from cancer, at the age of 65.[18]

Death

Towneley died on 11 November 2022, at the age of 100 at Dyneley Hall in Cliviger.[19]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-9711966-2-1
    .
  2. ^ "Simon Peter Edmund Cosmo William KOCH De GOOREYND". authorandbookinfo. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  3. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50272. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  4. ^ a b Peter W. Hammond, ed. (1998). The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. p. 759.
  5. ^ a b c "Sir Simon Towneley, musicologist, bibliophile and popular landowner from a Lancashire Catholic recusant family – obituary". telegraph.co.uk. 25 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Scion of distinguished recusant family". Catholicherald.co.uk. 2 December 2022.
  7. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage (107 ed.). p. 2350.
  8. ^ "No. 40523". The London Gazette. 28 June 1955. p. 3761.
  9. ^ "No. 35893". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 February 1943. p. 699.
  10. ^ a b c d "Tributes to former High Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire Sir Simon Towneley who has died at the age of 100". www.burnleyexpress.net. 15 November 2022.
  11. ^ Tracing the Towneleys (PDF), Towneley Hall Society, 2004, p. 15, archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2017, retrieved 3 August 2017
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-1-9997670-5-1
    . Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  13. ^ a b "Sir Simon Towneley obituary". www.thetimes.co.uk. 16 December 2022.
  14. ^ "Type & Forme Twenties No 2" (PDF). typeandforme.com. Type & Forme.
  15. ^ "No. 47034". The London Gazette. 8 October 1976. p. 13646.
  16. ^ "No. 53527". The London Gazette. 30 December 1993. p. 4.
  17. ^ "Fellows, Honorary Members and Associate Artists". rncm.ac.uk. Royal Northern College of Music.
  18. ^ a b Obituary: Lady Towneley, Daily Telegraph, March 2001
  19. Lancashire Post
    . 15 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire
1976–1997 		Succeeded by
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