Peter Townsend (RAF officer)


Peter Wooldridge Townsend was a British 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 had a romance with Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister.

Early life

Peter Wooldridge Townsend was born on 22 November 1914 in Rangoon, Burma, to doctor's son Lieutenant Colonel Edward Copleston Townsend, of the British Indian Army, and his wife, Gladys, daughter of Herbert Hatt-Cook, of Hartford Hall, Cheshire. At the time of the marriage his father was 42, 20 years older than his bride. The Townsend family, of Devon, tended to send its sons into the church or the armed forces.
From 1928 to 1932, Townsend was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, then an all-boys private school.

RAF career

Townsend joined the Royal Air Force in 1933 and trained at RAF Cranwell. He was commissioned a pilot officer on 27 July 1935. 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. He was promoted to flying officer on 27 January 1937, and returned to Tangmere that year as a member of No. 43 Squadron RAF. Townsend was promoted to flight lieutenant on 27 January 1939.
In a memoir, Townsend recounted 605 Squadron's arrival at Tangmere, just before the outbreak of war. Townsend wrote:
Things hummed at Tangmere Cottage, just opposite the guard room, where John_Verney,_20th_Baron_Willoughby_de_Broke| 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.

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 Herbert 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. Townsend was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in April 1940:
By May 1940, Townsend was one of the most capable squadron leaders of the Battle of Britain, serving throughout the battle as commanding officer of No. 85 Squadron RAF, flying Hawker Hurricanes. On 11 July 1940, Acting Squadron Leader Townsend, flying Hurricane VY-K 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 from the English coast, being rescued by HM Trawler Cape Finisterre. He was mentioned in despatches the same month. On 31 August, during combat with Messerschmitt Bf 110s over Tonbridge, 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. Townsend was promoted to the substantive rank of squadron leader on 1 September 1940. A Bar to his DFC was awarded in early September 1940, for leading his squadron in protecting convoys during July and August 1940, personally shooting down four enemy aircraft and leading his squadron in destroying at least 10 enemy aircraft and damaging many others. The citation said of his leadership "...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 RAF Hunsdon in Hertfordshire during early 1941. In May 1941, by now an acting wing commander and credited with shooting down at least 11 enemy aircraft, Townsend was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His citation credited Townsend as an officer who had "...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 wing commander on 1 December 1941. He later became commanding officer of RAF Drem in Scotland in April 1942 and commanded No. 611 Squadron RAF, a Spitfire unit. He was later leader of No. 605 Squadron RAF, a night fighter unit, and attended the staff college from October 1942. In January 1943, he was appointed commanding officer of RAF West Malling in Kent. His wartime record was nine aircraft claimed destroyed, and two shared, two 'probables' and four damaged.
DateLocationAircraft shot down
3 February 1940Near Whitby, North YorkshireHeinkel He 111 – first enemy aircraft to crash on English soil
22 February 1940North England patrolHeinkel He 111 – claimed destroyed
8 April 1940North England patrolHeinkel He 111 – claimed destroyed
11 July 1940Off Arras / English ChannelDornier Do 17 – severely damaged, forced to crash‑land in France
11 August 1940Thames Estuary regionDornier Do 17 – destroyed
18 August 1940Thames Estuary regionTwo Messerschmitt Bf 109 and one Bf 110 – three fighters destroyed
26 August 1940Over EnglandShared in destruction of two Dornier Do 17s
28 August 1940Over EnglandMesserschmitt Bf 109 – destroyed
29 August 1940Over EnglandMesserschmitt Bf 109 – destroyed

In 1944, Townsend was appointed temporary equerry to King George VI; the officer had been the future king's flight instructor in the 1930s. In the same year, the appointment was made permanent, and he served until 1953 when he became Extra Equerry, 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.
In August 1950, Townsend was made deputy Master of the Household and was moved to comptroller to the Queen Mother in 1952. He was promoted to group captain on 1 January 1953, and retired from the Royal Household the same year.
Townsend served as air attaché in Brussels from 1953 to 1956.

Later life

Townsend spent much of his later years writing non-fiction books. His books include Earth My Friend, Duel of Eagles, The Odds Against Us, The Last Emperor, The Girl in the White Ship, The Postman of Nagasaki, and Time and Chance. 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. He also appeared in the PBS video The Windsors: A Royal Family.

Personal life

On 17 July 1941, Townsend married Rosemary Pawle. They had two sons, Giles and Hugo. The family was resident in Adelaide Cottage in the 1940s. The younger son married Yolande, Princess of Ligne, daughter of Antoine, 13th Prince of Ligne and Alix, Princess of Ligne. Townsend and Pawle divorced in 1952.
After the divorce, Townsend and Princess Margaret 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 remarry 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 public statement formally ending the relationship:
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 commercial model for the fashion designer Ralph Lauren 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.

Death and legacy

Townsend died of stomach cancer on 19 June 1995, in Saint-Léger-en-Yvelines, France, at the age of 80. 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 Antony Armstrong-Jones, turned out to be an almost impossible undertaking".

Decorations and awards

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.
Group Captain Townsend was the recipient of several high-level British decorations for gallantry and distinguished service during the Second World War, as well as foreign honours from Belgium and the Netherlands. His medals reflect a career of active operational flying, and of service to the Royal Family.
; Foreign honours
The group of medals awarded to Townsend was sold at auction in June 2021 for £260,000 through the Dix Noonan Webb auction house.