Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

In 1953, Princess Margaret accepted marriage proposal from recently divorced Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend. The marriage proposal aroused negative sentiment from all quarters and the British cabinet refused to approve it. Eventually in 1955, it was decided that Princess Margaret could marry Townsend provided she opted out of the line of succession.

On 31 October 1955, Princess Margaret issued a statement, in which she said that she had decided to opt out of the marriage. As reasons, she had sighted not only the teachings of the Church, but also her duty to the Commonwealth.

On 6 May, 1960, five years after her break up with Townsend, Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones, a well-known photographer, at Westminster Abbey. In 1961, he was created Earl of Snowdon and Viscount Linley, of Nymans in the County of Sussex.

Princess Margaret Rose was born on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle, Scotland and baptized on 30 October in the chapel of Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her birth was verified by the then Home Secretary, J. R. Clynes.

At the time of her birth, she was the fourth in the line of succession. Her father, Albert Frederick Arthur George, the Duke of York, was the second son of King George V. Later, on the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, he succeeded the throne, becoming King George VI.

Her mother, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, was the daughter of 14th and 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Lord of Glamis. She wanted to name her younger daughter Margaret Ann; but later settled on Margaret Rose because King George V did not approve of ‘Ann’.

Born younger of his parents’ two children, Margaret had an elder sister named Elizabeth, who on their father’s death became the Queen of United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II. The two siblings were very fond of each other; but their characters were far apart.

In 1932, when Margaret, lovingly called Margot, was two years old, the family moved to the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. They also had a town house located at 145, Piccadilly, where they spent considerable time.

Princess Margaret began her public life with the launching of ‘Edinburg Castle’, a 747 feet (228 m) long ocean liner, on 16 October 1947 at Harland & Wolff's yard in Belfast. By eighteen, she had number of public engagements and had joined many charitable organizations as patron or president.

In September 1951, one month after she had celebrated her twenty-first birthday, her father, King George VI, underwent a surgery for lung cancer. During this period, Princess Margaret was appointed one of the Counsellors of State and was entrusted with carrying out her father’s official duties while he was incapacitated.

King George VI died on 6 February 1952, throwing Margaret into intense grief. While she found solace in her Christian beliefs, her friendship with Townsend also helped her to overcome her grief.

After the coronation of her elder sister as Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret and her mother, ‘Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother’, moved to the Clarence House while Queen Elizabeth II moved to the Buckingham Palace. Steadfast in her loyalties to the Crown, Margaret continued to carry on her royal duties.

In 1953, Princess Margaret and Queen Mother went on an official tour to Rhodesia. However, her first solo official tour took place in 1955 when she visited the British colonies in the Caribbean on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. Here, she earned great popularity with calypsos being dedicated to her.

In 1962, she represented the British Crown at the independence ceremonies in Jamaica. It was followed by an official visit to the United States of America in 1963 and to Denmark in 1964 and Japan in 1969. It is believed that she was bugged by the KGB while she was in Copenhagen.

In 1974, Princess Margaret once again traveled to the New World, visiting both United States and Canada. Next in 1975, she visited Australia. When the island republics of Dominica and Tuvalu attained independence in late 1978, she attended their independence ceremonies as the representative of the Crown.

In 1979, she visited Japan for the second time. In October, she went on a fund raising tour to the United States of America on behalf of Royal Opera House. It was followed by her visit to Philippines in 1980, Swaziland in 1981, and China in 1987.