Via The Times Obituaries
Literary lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret who advised on books and etiquette and became a great friend of John Betjeman
When Princess Margaret decided that she needed a lady-in-waiting who could help her to make up for what she felt was her lack of formal education, she was recommended Lady Juliet Townsend, the daughter of the 2nd Earl of Birkenhead, a woman of letters and a friend of the poet John Betjeman.
The princess, who was naturally bright and inquiring, had always resented the fact that she and her sister had been educated mainly at home by their governesses, and that her mother, Queen Elizabeth, had, in the words of Randolph Churchill, “never aimed at bringing her daughters up to be more than nicely behaved young ladies”.
It was 1965. Townsend was invited to a dinner party given by the Queen and was surprised to find both Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon present. Little did she know that she was being interviewed for the job. Afterwards she felt that, in her nervousness, she had talked too much, but a few days later she was invited to join the princess and she worked for her full time from 1965 to 1971 and part-time until the princess’s death in 2002.
The princess particularly wanted a woman with literary connections. Recommended by Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, Lady Juliet fitted the bill; her parents were both authors and, over the next 40 years, the princess was always asking her what she should be reading.
Townsend advised Princess Margaret during many royal visits. In pre-revolutionary Cambodia she helped to defuse a potentially fraught exchange of official gifts. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the country’s leader, had given the princess a large and ostentatious present of silver. The princess’s gift was also silver — smaller in size but of superior quality. According to Lady Juliet’s husband, John Townsend, “They had to dress it up carefully, and invent a way of presenting it to the prince so that it looked good but did not cause offence.” Lady Juliet liked to tell the story of how, on a visit to Japan, Emperor Hirohito insisted on giving the princess an exhaustive tour of his collection of sea shells and that, far from finding it dull, the princess was fascinated and bombarded the delighted emperor with questions.
A gregarious woman with a pronounced sense of fun, Townsend was often an emollient to Princess Margaret’s famous tantrums; and when that failed, she simply ignored the royal histrionics. Townsend also became close to the princess’s two children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, and was fiercely protective of them in the years leading up to Princess Margaret’s separation and divorce from Lord Snowdon in 1978. She greatly disapproved of those who made public their experience at court.
Both of Townsend’s grandfathers had important roles in public life in the first part of the 20th century. Her grandfather was FE Smith, the first Earl of Birkenhead, who was appointed lord chancellor; his wit in court, speeches in parliament and judgments continue to be quoted. Her mother’s father was William Berry, the first Lord Camrose, who arrived in London in the early 1900s determined to make his way in newspapers. In this he succeeded, building a press empire by purchasing The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph.
In her childhood, Lady Juliet came to know and love John and Penelope Betjeman — her aunt had married Penelope’s brother Roger — and she spent many holidays with them. Here she was introduced to the joys of riding over the Berkshire Downs. Penelope Betjeman, an expert horsewoman, would drive carriages at a fearsome pace and Townsend enjoyed recalling how, on one occasion, Mrs Betjeman had agreed to transport some nuns and set off at such a lick that when she looked behind her, the unprepared sisters had fallen out of the carriage and were strewn on the grass. She revelled in the Betjemans’ eccentric lifestyle and loved receiving letters from them; as well as the beautiful prose, she treasured the headed notepaper which, after the address, said “No telephone, thank God”.
John Betjeman later invited her to write The Shell Guide to Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough. This series had been started by Betjeman and David Piper before the war. In gathering information Townsend visited every village and town in the county. Her book was affectionate but did not quail from criticising a Norwich Union building close to Peterborough Cathedral. Shell ordered her critical passage to be removed, but John Betjeman was so furious at the censure that he resigned as editor of the series.
She also wrote a children’s book on the Indian Mutiny,Escape from Meerut, and edited the Faber Book of Best Horse Stories. For many years she reviewed books for The Spectator and each Christmas compiled a round-up of children’s books. She was a passionate believer that children should read and would give any of her six grandchildren a pound if they learnt a poem and could recite it to her word perfectly.
Juliet Margaret Townsend was born in Ascot in 1941. Her father, the 2nd Earl of Birkenhead, whose wartime exploits included a well-documented expedition in Yugoslavia with Randolph Churchill and Evelyn Waugh, wrote distinguished biographies of Lord Halifax and Walter Monckton. His biography of Rudyard Kipling was suppressed by the author’s family for years.
Her childhood was spent in Charlton, some 20 miles north of Oxford. The house had been adapted and enlarged by FE Smith from two small farmhouses. Educated firstly at Francis Holland School in London and later at Westonbirt, she studied English at Somerville College, Oxford, under the terrifying Mary Lascelles, who was a foremost expert on Jane Austen. At tutorials, one stray word would be pounced on. When reading the word “dedicated” in one of Townsend’s essays, Lascelles looked up sharply from her reverie: “Dedicated! Juliet? Dedicated to whom?”
Her association with Princess Margaret enabled her to renew a love for the girl guides; she had once been an enthusiastic brownie. The princess had become president of the girl guides in 1965 and Townsend accompanied her when she visited a pack in east London. Keen to help in a deprived area, Townsend volunteered to assist on Monday evenings. The girls, mainly from poor families, came to love this eccentric, aristocratic lady who would organise camps at her family estate, orchestrating singalongs around the campfire and riotous games of “kick the can” on the immaculate lawn. She was still supporting the troop towards the end of her life.
In 1970 she married John Richard Townsend whom she had met at a country house party in Wales, which had been hosted by Davina Wallace — later the wife of Lord Howell of Guildford and the mother-in-law of George Osborne, the chancellor. Soon afterwards they moved to Newbottle Manor in Northamptonshire, which is near to the Birkenhead family estate in Charlton. She ran a Sunday school in the village, bred Arab horses and loved watching athletics. Her love of books was shared by her husband and together in 1977 they opened the Old Hall Bookshop in Brackley. John Townsend survives her along with their three daughters: Alice, who runs the family estate; Eleanor, an exhibitions manager for the V&A; and Margaret, who is studying at Birkbeck College for a postgraduate degree in US politics.
With the death in 1985 of her only brother, Robin, the third and last Lord Birkenhead, the Townsends found themselves responsible for the family farm and estate. She was determined to keep the estate intact and particularly “the Cottage” in Charlton, which had been FE Smith’s home. In 1998 she was appointed lord lieutenant of Northamptonshire. Her health failing, she reluctantly resigned earlier this year, but it was a huge pleasure to her that she was able to go to Windsor in October to be made a Dame Companion of the Victorian Order by the Queen.
Townsend was a devoted mother to her three daughters and would organise memorable birthday parties for them with themes including the Olympics, Cluedo, Red Indians and Halo’ween. Her own birthday fell on September 9, and on the 9/9/1999 she invited 99 guests who sat down to dinner at 9 minutes past 9pm.
Lady Juliet Townsend, DVCO, lady in waiting, was born on September 9, 1941. She died of cancer on November 29, 2014, aged 73