This article recounts the tragic love affair between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend. Despite their deep affection, their romance was doomed due to Townsend's divorcee status, which would have forced Margaret to relinquish her royal title. The article explores the controversy surrounding their age gap, with allegations that Townsend exploited his position as Margaret's chaperone to pursue the relationship when she was just 14. It delves into the details of their romance, including their meeting in 1944 and the subsequent request for adjoining bedrooms during a visit to Belfast.
He was the tall, handsome and fearless RAF war hero who won three medals for shooting down 11 enemy aircraft during the Second World War.But despite being madly in love with each other, Group Captain Peter Townsend and Princess Margaret's romance ended in tragedy.
The pair wanted to marry but Margaret heart-wrenchingly pulled out because his position as a divorcee meant she would have had to give up her status as a royal - a move which was seen as choosing duty before love. But over the years, there have been questions about the age gap between the pair, who met when Townsend was a 29-year-old married father and Margaret was just 14. It is not known when their relationship began exactly, but one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting recently claimed the dashing war hero took advantage of his proximity to the young princess to encourage the romance when she was just 15. And just after she turned 17, a request was made for the captain and Margaret to have adjoining bedrooms during a visit to Belfast. Here MailOnline looks back at the scandalous and heart-breaking love story - and reveals how it still continues to divide royal fans decades later. Group Captain Peter Townsend was made equerry to King George VI - and later sparked a romance with Princess Margaret Margaret and Townsend on the Royal South Africa Tour in 1947. It was his job to chaperone the young princess, who was then 16The Princess met Townsend, who was the new equerry to her father King George VI, on his first day at Buckingham Palace in 1944.Townsend later wrote about the moment the pair met in his autobiography Time and Chance, which was published years after their relationship had ended, in 1978. 'After my introduction, down the corridor came two adorable-looking girls; Princess Elizabeth, then 17, and her sister Margaret, 14, all smiles. He later wrote: 'Princess Elizabeth — our future Queen — was the King's pride. Princess Margaret was his joy. 'She was a girl of unusual, intense beauty, centred about large purple-blue eyes, generous lips and a complexion as smooth as a peach. 'She could change in an instant from saintly composure to hilarious, uncontrollable joy. She was a comedienne at heart, playing the piano and singing in her rich voice the latest hits, imitating the stars. 'But what ultimately made Princess Margaret so attractive was that behind the dazzling facade, you could find, if you looked for it, a rare softness and sincerity.' Princess Margaret, aged 20, attending the premiere of the film Captain Horatio Hornblower at the Warner Theatre, Leicester Square in 1951Margaret posing ahead of the premier for Hamlet at the Leicester Square Odeon in December 1953 Princess Margaret, 25, returns to Clarence House on October 17, 1955, after a weekend in the country where Townsend was also a guest. The decision not to marry him was announced on October 31 The Royal Box at Ascot showing Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend in June, 1952 Queen Elizabeth II holding a camera at the Olympic Horse Trials at Badminton, while Princess Margaret sits behind her, smoking a cigarette and watching the action. Captain Peter Townsend is standing behind them Tall, slim, with piercing grey-blue eyes and an unwavering gaze, Townsend's appearance was described as 'similar to a matinee idol'. He was a war hero due to his status as one of 'The Few' – a courageous Battle of Britain pilot who had helped save the nation from Nazi invasion. His RAF uniform decorated with medals attested to his gallantry. The flying ace shot down 11 enemy aircraft in more than 300 operational sorties during the Second World War and bailed out of his Hurricane twice - once when he was forced to ditch the stricken aircraft in the English Channel, then after he was hit in the foot by cannon fire. After their first meeting, palace lore claims Princess Elizabeth said to her sister: 'Bad luck, he's married.' It is unknown when the pair's romance formally began, but the late Queen's lady-in-waiting Lady Anne Glenconner's verdict on Townsend was not flattering. Lady Anne, then 91, said in 2023: 'I once asked her about it, actually. He was a war hero, very attractive. 'She was very, very young. She was only 15 when he first arrived and he was a married man. I think he encouraged her, which he shouldn't have done.' Asked on the Rosebud podcast if she thinks Townsend, 15 years Margaret's senior, was taking advantage of his proximity to her, Lady Anne says she did. Princess Elizabeth arrives at the Palace Theatre in London in 1946. Group Captain Peter Townsend, in uniform, looks on as Princess Margaret emerges from the car'That isn't something that has been brought out very much, but I couldn't agree more,' she adds. More clues to when their relationship began were revealed by Daily Mail columnist Craig Brown in 2017 when he wrote that when Townsend accompanied the princess on a trip to Belfast a request was made for them to have adjoining bedrooms.The princess was launching the Union-Castle liner on October 16, 1947, with Townsend, who was then 32 and the father of two young sons, accompanying her. Although there is no proof they were intimate at that stage, official papers of the visit recorded that the Group Captain had asked for a different bedroom to the one he had been allocated. He asked to be moved next door to Margaret. And although standards were different back then, more than 70 years ago, even today the idea of a married man in his 30s asking to be in such close proximity to a girl of 17 would raise eyebrows. Anyone who knew the diffident Townsend and the headstrong Margaret would assume the move was because she wanted it. As Brown's biography on the Princess makes clear, what Margaret wanted, she usually got. Addressing the revelation, an old friend of Margaret told the Daily Mail in 2017: 'This was playing with fire, a terrible risk for her reputation and that of the Royal Family.'It's a miracle it hasn't come out before. I have to say, though, that having met Peter Townsend, I would be surprised if he was sleeping with the Princess when she was so young.' Townsend later wrote in his autobiography: 'I cannot help the feeling the sex-urge is a rather unfair device employed by God. He needs children and counts on us to beget them. 'But while he has incorporated in our make-up an insatiable capacity for pleasures which flow from love, he seems to have forgotten to build in a monitoring device, to warn us of the unseen snags which may be lurking further on. Unless it be intelligence. 'But sex is an enemy of the head, an ally of the heart. Boys and girls, madly in love, generally do not act intelligently. 'The sex-trap is baited and set and the boys and girls go rushing headlong into it. They live on love and kisses, until there are no more left.' Earlier in 1947, Margaret and her sister, Elizabeth, had accompanied the King and Queen on a three-month State tour of Southern Africa. Townsend's role was to chaperone the younger princess. Reports of the tour judged the 5ft 1in Margaret to be 'livelier, prettier, more sexually charged' than her elder sister. Yet she was then still only 16. Princess Margaret leaves after a dinner party in Kensington in 1955. Both she and Townsend were guests You would expect a teenage princess to be bored being toted from country to country with all the pomp and ceremony involved in State visits. But in future years Margaret would speak of remembering 'every minute' of the tour. The two were in each other's company every day, riding out and taking in the sights. As Princess Margaret herself later told a confidante: 'We rode together every morning in that wonderful country, in marvellous weather. That's when I really fell in love with him.' In fact, as is known, she was only 14 when Townsend arrived as Equerry and Deputy Master of the King's Household, and immediately had a crush on him. With his quick wit and boyish charm, Townsend rapidly became a popular member of the King's staff. He rode with the princesses, flew planes in air races for them, played canasta with the Queen and enlivened gatherings at the royal residences. He was, moreover, a married man who lived with his wife and children in a grace-and-favour cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The then Queen and her daughters were frequent visitors to the Townsend family home. Margaret had increasingly relied on Townsend as she tried to cope with the darkness that had overwhelmed her since her father's death in 1952. Whisky, pills, tranquillisers and cigarettes did little to help with the pain. Only Townsend – soothing, calm and gentle – could lighten her moods, according to royal expert Andrew Morton.Pictured: Group Captain Townsend's pilot's log book, which was sold at auction in 2021 Group Captain Townsend was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross with Bar for his wartime service, during which he shot down 11 enemy aircraft in more than 300 operational sortiesPrincess Margaret and Townsend photographed at Harrismith during the royal tour of South Africa in April 1947Townsend eventually divorced his wife Rosemary Pawle in 1952, admitting later the pair were never really suited and they married because he 'stepped out of the cockpit and married the first pretty girl I met'. In April 1953, Townsend proposed to Margaret and they entered into a secret engagement, but his status as a divorced man left the couple in a precarious situation. Due to her sister Elizabeth's position as head of The Church of England as sovereign, there was a dim view at the time of divorce and remarriage. Divorce itself was an explosive subject for the Windsors, who had been badly shaken when the Queen's uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson in 1936. Read More Wartime gallantry medals awarded to Princess Margaret's lover and RAF 'ace' Peter Townsend who shot down 11 enemy aircraft sell for £260,000 at auction As Princess Margaret was under the age of 25, the Queen had to consent to her marriage to a divorced man under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. Although Elizabeth was later blamed for Margaret's decision to not marry Townsend, in more recent times, it has been accepted that the decision to break off the relationship with Townsend was principally Margaret's. On June 2, 1953, the affair became public thanks to a famous moment during the Queen's Coronation when Margaret was seen tenderly removing a bit of fluff from his lapel while waiting outside Westminster Abbey. It was subsequently decided that Townsend would be sent away to work as an air attaché for the British Embassy in Brussels for a year, after which, the couple was asked to wait another year. The government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Eden, stated that if she married her love then she would be stripped of her royal privileges as well as her income. The Princess told Eden in a letter: 'It is only by seeing him in this way that I feel I can properly decide whether I can marry him or not'. Margaret and Townsend remained apart for two years until the couple were reunited for the first time on October 12, 1955. However, three weeks later, a statement drafted in Princess Margaret's name announced the tragic news that the pair would go their separate ways. Margaret announced that, '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,' she would not marry the divorcee. What remained unsaid was that marrying Townsend would have meant Margaret sacrificing her royal status, its privileges and perks. And Townsend could scarcely keep her in the manner to which she had been accustomed. Townsend later wrote: 'She could have married me only if she had been prepared to give up everything—her position, her prestige, her privy purse.The heart-breaking love story was later depicted in hit Netflix show The Crown. How the Daily Mail reported Princess Margaret's announcement that she would not be marrying Group Captain Peter TownsendHaving returned to Belgium heartbroken after Margaret's decision, he later married a 20-year-old heiress named Marie-Luce Jamagne in 1959 and the couple went on to have two daughters and one son.Read More Revealed: Princess Margaret herself - not her sister the Queen - blocked marriage to divorced RAF hero Captain Peter Townsend, declassified Government documents reveal A year later in May 1960, Margaret married a magazine photographer, Antony Armstrong-Jones, at Westminster Abbey. Armstrong-Jones was the first commoner to marry into the royal family in more than 400 years. He was created Earl of Snowdon. The pair eventually divorced in 1978. Townsend's wife Rosemary, a brigadier's daughter, took an old-fashioned view and protected the Royal Family from scandal by declining to divorce Townsend and name the Princess as the other woman. Instead, she allowed herself to be the 'guilty party', admitting adultery with the man who became her second husband. For the next 50 years, she doggedly refused to speak up for herself. When Margaret and Townsend met again 37 years after their split, he was happily married to Marie-Luce and they could talk with the same intimacy as they had before.Townsend's autobiography, Time and Chance, was first published in 1978. The most recent edition was released in 2022 Captain Peter Townsend with his sons, Giles, then 16, and Hugo, then 12, crossing the road from the Carlton Hotel in Cannes in 1958 Last year a documentary published claims by the former Archbishop of Canterbury that Princess Margaret had 'a deep sadness' on her deathbed in 2002 because the 'love of her life' Townsend was 'forbidden from her' It was 1992 and he was in London to attend a reunion of those who had travelled with the Royal Family in 1947. To avoid Press attention, Margaret declined an invitation to the reunion, but invited Townsend to tea. Three years later he was dead from stomach cancer, but Margaret still had his letters, which she decreed could not be read until 100 years from her birth — in 2030. The letters could reveal the truth about how the greatest crisis for the royals since the Abdication actually began. Although we may have to wait another six years for that deadline to expire to learn the unvarnished truth. But despite the unclear timeline of when the romance started, for Margaret it seems to have lasted a lifetime. Last year a documentary published claims by the former Archbishop of Canterbury that the Princess had 'a deep sadness' on her deathbed in 2002 because the 'love of her life' Townsend was 'forbidden from her'. He said: 'Here is a woman who longed for love and commitment, and the love of her love was forbidden from her, and there was a deep human sadness in that.'
ROYAL FAMILY PRINCESS MARGARET GROUP CAPTAIN PETER TOWNSEND LOVE AFFAIR ROYAL SCANDAL
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