Word: townsends
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They could afford little entertaining, but when their second son was born, the King himself served as godfather and the entire royal family went to the christening. From then on, Margaret and her sister Elizabeth formed the habit of dropping in at the Townsend cottage on Sunday mornings, Elizabeth to chat with Rosemary and Margaret to play with the babies. Margaret never went alone to the Townsends, but in the family it was generally understood that she was his special charge, and Peter was frequently at the Princess' side in line of duty. Elizabeth often made their party...
Three weeks after he was hired, Townsend and wife Rosemary were settled in a "grace and favor" cottage behind a ten-foot privet hedge in Windsor Great Park. They shared the hardships of most young married couples on service pay, and it was harder on the wife than the husband. Wing Commander Townsend had only his officer's allowances, plus an extra stipend of ?1,000 for his royal duties, and as a result the pair were far poorer than most of the people they were called on to meet...
...Equerry Townsend was often away from home. When the royal family went on tour, he went along. He spent hours playing canasta with the Queen, parlor games with the Princesses or simply chatting with the King. In 1947, he was away for 3½ months while the royal family toured South Africa. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Peter," the King told him on that trip. Rosemary Townsend, back in Windsor, was also struggling with the problem of what to do without...
...King George had promoted acting Group Captain (equals U.S. colonel) Townsend to Deputy Master of his Household. As his health failed, the King leaned more and more on the young airman who became his constant companion. Never long, the King's temper became testily short in illness, and only Townsend and Margaret seemed to know how to soothe...
...February 1952 King George died. Stricken deeply by the first real blow ever dealt in her sheltered life, Princess Margaret turned for comfort to the church and to Peter Townsend, himself a deeply religious man. Meanwhile, the circumstances that put Elizabeth into Buckingham Palace and sent her mother and sister to the comparative obscurity of Clarence House made Peter Townsend more indispensable than ever. In the midst of a domestic crisis of his own, he took complete charge of readying the new residence, managed the Queen Mother's purse strings and even supervised the mixing of the colors...