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Historical records matching Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, CVO, DSO, DFC
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About Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, CVO, DSO, DFC
Peter Wooldridge Townsend
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Townsend_(RAF_officer%29 https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Peter_Townsend_(RAF_officer%29
Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, CVO, DSO, DFC & Bar (22 November 1914 – 19 June 1995) was a Royal Air Force officer, flying ace, courtier and author. He was Equerry to King George VI from 1944 to 1952 and held the same position for Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 1953. Townsend also had a romance with Princess Margaret.
Peter Townsend was born 1914 in Rangoon, Burma, and was educated at Haileybury School.
He joined the Royal Air Force in 1933, and trained at Cranwell. He served in Training Command, and as a flying instructor at RAF Montrose. He was stationed at RAF Tangmere in 1937 and was a member of No. 43 Squadron RAF. The first enemy aircraft to crash on English soil during World War II fell victim to fighters from Acklington on 3 February 1940 when three Hurricanes of ‘B’ flight, 43 Squadron, shot down a Heinkel 111 of 4./KG26 near Whitby. The pilots were F/L Townsend, F/O ‘Tiger’ Folkes and Sgt. James Hallowes. He was awarded the DFC in April 1940. Two more He 111s were claimed by Townsend, on 22 February and 8 April, and a sixth share on 22 April.
By May 1940, Townsend was one of the most capable squadron leaders of the Battle of Britain, serving throughout the battle as CO of No. 85 Squadron RAF, flying Hawker Hurricanes. On 11 July 1940 Townsend, flying Hurricane VY-K (P2716) intercepted a Dornier Do 17 of KG 2 and severely damaged the bomber, forcing it to crash land at Arras. Return fire from the Dornier hit the Hurricane coolant system and Townsend was forced to ditch 20 miles from the English coast, being rescued by HM Trawler Cape Finisterre. On 31 August, during combat with Bf 110s over Tunbridge, Townsend was shot down and wounded in the left foot by a cannon shell which went through the glycol tank and exploded in the cockpit. 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. A bar to his DFC was awarded in early September 1940.
He oversaw the conversion of 85 Squadron to night operations at RAF Hunsdon during early 1941. Awarded a DSO in April 1941, he later became Commanding Officer RAF Drew in April 1942 and commanded No. 611 Squadron RAF, a Spitfire unit. https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Peter_Townsend_(RAF_officer%29
On 17 July 1941, Townsend married (Cecil) Rosemary Pawle (1921–2004). They had two sons, Giles (1942–2015) and Hugo (b. 1945). The younger son married Yolande, Princess of Ligne, daughter of Antoine, 13th Prince of Ligne and Alix, Princess of Ligne (née Princess Alix of Luxembourg). Townsend and Pawle divorced in 1952. Pawle married, secondly, John de László (son of the painter Philip de László), and thirdly, in 1978, the 5th Marquess Camden.[citation needed]
After the divorce, Townsend and Princess Margaret formed a relationship and decided to marry. He had met her in his role as an equerry to her father, King George VI. Divorcees suffered severe disapproval in the social atmosphere of the time and could not re-marry in the Church of England if their former spouse was still alive. Their relationship was considered especially controversial because Margaret's sister, Queen Elizabeth II, was the Church's Supreme Governor.
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.
In 1959, aged 45, Townsend married 20-year-old Marie-Luce Jamagne, a Belgian national he had met the previous year. 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.
Peter 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 Battle of Britain), The Odds Against Us (also known as Duel in the Dark, about fighting Luftwaffe night bombers in 1940–1941), The Last Emperor (a biography of King George VI), The Girl in the White Ship (about a young refugee from Vietnam in the late 1970s who was the sole survivor of her ship of refugees), The Postman of Nagasaki (about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki), and Time and Chance (an autobiography). He also wrote many short articles and contributed to other books.
Townsend was a director of one of Gerald Carroll's Carroll Group companies.
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).
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Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, CVO, DSO, DFC's Timeline
| 1914 |
November 22, 1914
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Rangoun, Yangon Region, Myanmar
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| 1942 |
1942
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| 1995 |
1995
Age 80
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Saint Léger En Yvelines, Yvelines, IDF, France
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| ???? |
Moustiers Sainte Marie, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
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