George Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend of Raynham
1916–2010
Dress Tunic, c. 1936
Born
George John Patrick Dominic Townshend, Lord Townshend was the only son
of John Townshend, 6th Marquess Townshend. Lord Townshend studied at
Harrow School and was gazetted to the Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry on
May 23, 1936. The Norfolk Yeomanry was originally a cavalry regiment,
but in 1920 the regiment was converted to artillery and in 1924 was
constituted as the 108th (Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry) Field Brigade,
Royal Artillery of the Territorial Army. Lord Townshend reached his
majority in 1937, taking his seat in the House of Lords. Though he had
previously been serving extra duty since 1937 as an aide-de-camp to Sir
W. Edmund Ironside, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for the
Eastern Command of the Territorial Army, Lord Townshend was officially
appointed to that role in April of 1938. He was advanced to lieutenant
in May of 1939. When General Ironside was made Chief of the Imperial
General Staff in September of 1939, Lord Townshend accompanied him as
his personal assistant and was made an acting captain in December.
General Ironside’s tenure as Chief of the Imperial General Staff ended
in May of 1940 and Lord Townshend relinquished his commission in the
Territorial Army on June 3 to accept an emergency commission as a second
lieutenant in the Scots Guards. He had volunteered for the 5th (Special
Reserve) Battalion (the ski battalion), which was formed to fight the
Russians in Finland; but neutral Sweden refused permission for British
troops to cross its territory, and the unit was swiftly disbanded. Lord
Townshend remained with the Scots Guards until the war’s end; he was
made a war substantiative lieutenant in 1941 and temporary captain in
1942. Lord Townshend returned to Raynham after the war, devoting himself
to the estate and the Hall. He became the founding chairman of Anglia
Television in 1959 and maintained his seat in the House of Lords until
the hereditaries were expelled in 1999. Lord Townshend was a member of
the United Grand Lodge of England throughout his life.
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Departed the collection in 2024.
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