George Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend


George John Patrick Dominic Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend, styled Viscount Raynham until 1921, was a British peer and businessman.

Background

Townshend was the only son of John Townshend, 6th Marquess Townshend, and Gwladys Ethel Gwendolen Eugenie Sutherst. His education was at Harrow School, where he contracted a near-fatal case of septicaemia caused by a cricket injury. In 1936 he joined the Norfolk Yeomanry, later transferring to the Scots Guards and serving in World War II. He notably served as Chairman of Anglia Television from 1958 to 1986. Having held his titles since the death of his father in 1921, as of 2 March 2009 Lord Townshend had held a peerage longer than any other peer in history, having passed the previous mark of 87 years, 104 days, held by Charles St Clair, 13th Lord Sinclair. Townshend was an active freemason. From 1951 to 1961, he was a Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk.
As a hereditary peer, Lord Townshend was entitled to sit and vote in the House of Lords until 1999. He took his seat in 1937, when he reached maturity and received his writ of summons. Townshend sat as a Conservative, attending debates irregularly until the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999.

Family

Lord Townshend married, firstly, Elizabeth Pamela Audrey Luby, daughter of Thomas Luby, on 2 September 1939. They had three children:
After he and his first wife were divorced in 1960, Lord Townshend married, secondly, Ann Frances Darlow, daughter of Arthur Pellow Darlow, on 22 December 1960. They had two children.
Lord Townshend married, thirdly, in 2004, Philippa Sophia Swire, former wife of Humphrey Roger Swire, and daughter of George Jardine Kidston-Montgomerie of Southannan. She is the mother of the Conservative MP Hugo Swire and Sophia Swire.
Lord Townshend died aged 93 on 23 April 2010, having held his peerage for 89 years. At the time, the longest known holder of a peerage, having passed the record, in March 2009, of 87 years and 104 days set by the 13th Lord Sinclair in 1863.