George Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George John Patrick Dominic Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend (born May 13, 1916 in London , † April 23, 2010 ibid) was a British peer and entrepreneur .

life and career

Townshend was the only son of John Townshend, 6th Marquess Townshend and Gwladys Sutherst. His mother, described in the New York Times as the most beautiful woman of her time in England , was a writer. A play of it, The Fold , was performed in London 1920th

After his father's death (1921), Townshend grew up under the care of his mother on the family estate of Raynham Hall , near Fakenham . His mother received threatening letters in 1926 threatening his kidnapping. However, the threatened kidnapping fizzled out; the young Townshend did not find out about it. An Oxford paralegal was eventually arrested and charged.

Townshend attended Harrow School and joined the Norfolk Yeomanry in 1936 . There he served until 1940. He was aide-de-camp of General , later Field Marshal , Sir Edmund Ironside in his capacity as General Officer Commanding Eastern Command and personal assistant to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff until 1940, when he served during the bombing of London was wounded and became an instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . Then he became a member of the Scots Guards . He stayed there until the end of World War II .

From 1936 he sat on the City Council of Walsingham for two decades . He has been a member of several Norfolk associations , societies and trusts. As President of the Fakenham Young Farmers' Club , at the first meeting in October 1948, he presented his plans to visit France to learn about machine harvesting techniques.

He was also the governor of three schools, church mayor and deputy lieutenant of Norfolk from 1951 to 1961. As a farmer, he ran his own land of 6,500 acres and was chairman of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association (RNAA) from 1975 to 1975 1985 and bred Arabian horses . Since 1957 he was chairman of Raynham Farm Co Ltd .

In June 1958 he founded Anglia Television with Aubrey Buxton , who was also a director. Until 1986, Townshend Chairman (remained Chairman ). His notoriety in Norfolk helped found a finance consortium that threw three other competitors for the East Anglia state television license in 1958 out of the running. Broadcasting began in October 1959. Together with Buxton, the other co-owner Laurence Scott and the producer John Woolf , he formed a very active management team that carried out the broadcasting operation without its own program commission or program control. Townshend intervened in 1970 to prevent nude scenes from the erotic musical Oh! Calcutta! be shown in an art documentary. In 1973 he spoke out together with Hartley Shawcross , chairman of Thames Television , against the broadcast of a controversial documentary about Andy Warhol .

From 1976 to 1986 he was chairman of the Anglia TV Group plc . From 1971 to 1986 he was chairman of Survival Anglia Ltd . In 1972 he became the fourth member of the family to become president of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association . From 1973 to 1987 he was chairman of the Norfolk Agricultural Station , and its president from 1987 to 1987, he was 1975 chairman of the AP Bank Ltd . In 1987 he was President of the Morley Agricultural Foundation .

He was director of more than 20 companies for over 30 years. Townshend was director and later vice chairman of Norwich Union Insurance Company for nearly 40 years from 1950 to 1986 and 1973 to 1986, respectively. He was director of London Merchant Securities from 1964 to 1995, a real estate group formed by Max Rayne , and was director for two years of the Riggs National Bank in Washington, DC from 1987 to 1989.

Townshend received an honorary doctorate from the University of East Anglia as Doctor of Civil Law in 1989 and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (FRSA) in 1990 .

After his retirement at the age of 70, a building was named Townshend House after him in recognition of his services .

Membership in the House of Lords

He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1937 when he came of age . In his inaugural address on June 24, 1947, he spoke during the second reading of the Agriculture Bill .

In May 1948, as a conservative Whip , he was one of 11 peers who proposed the abolition of noble privileges in criminal proceedings. He regularly attended meetings of the House of Lords until he and most of the other hereditary peers lost their seats under the House of Lords Act 1999 .

family

Townshend was married to Elizabeth Luby for the first time on September 2, 1939. Together they had three children, a daughter and two sons, including Charles Townshend, 8th Marquess Townshend (* 1945). Townshend and his wife divorced in 1960.

He married Ann Frances Darlow on December 22, 1960, who died in 1988. They had two children together. On May 7, 2004 he married Philippa Sophia Swire (* 1935). She is a descendant of the Earls of Eglinton & Winton and was previously married to Humphrey Roger Swire (1934-2004) and daughter of George Kidston-Montgomerie of Southannan.

death

George Townshend died in London on April 23, 2010 at the age of 93 . A memorial service was held in Norwich Cathedral on June 25, 2010 . The service was celebrated by the Bishop of Norwich , Graham Richard James .

Trivia

He had held his title since the death of his father in 1921 and thus set the record on March 2, 2009 for the longest time to have held a title of nobility. The record was previously at 87 years and 104 days and was held by Charles St Clair, 13th Lord Sinclair (born July 30, 1768, from December 16, 1775, † March 30, 1863).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Most Hon the Marquess Townshend's Biography  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biography at Debretts (available online)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.debretts.com  
  2. ^ Marquess Townshend of Raynham - obituary obituary in: EDP24 of April 28, 2010
  3. ^ Marquess Townshend of Raynham Hall dies at 93 death report in: EDP24 of April 27, 2010
  4. ↑ Public service to remember the 7th Marquess Townshend of Raynham in: EDP24 of May 25, 2010
predecessor Office successor
John Townshend Marquess Townshend
1921-2010 		Charles Townshend
personal data
SURNAME Townshend, George, 7th Marquess Townshend
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Townshend, George John Patrick Dominic Townshend 7th Marquess (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British peer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 2010
Place of death London