The son of Charles Townend, he was born in 1934 in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, and educated at Hymers College in Hull. He studied accountancy 1951–57 as an articled clerk, and received the Plender Prize for the top prize when he became a Chartered Accountant. He then served in the Royal Air Force as a commissioned Pilot Officer from 1957–59. In the latter year he joined his family business as Commercial Secretary and Finance Director, becoming Managing Director and then chairman of House of Townend wine merchants in Hull. He was Chairman of the Yorkshire and HumbersideWine and Spirit Merchants' Association 1975–6. In 1977 he became an Underwriter at Lloyds.
Politics
Townend was active in local politics and contested the parliamentary seat of Hull North in the 1970 general election. He was then elected to Humberside County Council in 1973, becoming the Leader of the Conservative Group and shadow Chairman of the Policy Committee. He also became a member of the Conservative National Advisory Committee on local Government. He subsequently became Leader of the county council, Chairman of its Policy Committee, and member of the Policy Committee of the Association of County Councils, 1977. At the 1979 general election Townend was elected as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, a seat which he held until his retirement in 2001. He served as Secretary of the Conservative Back-bench Finance Committee and was a member of the Select Committee on Treasury and Civil Service affairs and Vice-Chairman of the Back-bench Finance Committee. He was also Principle Private Secretary to Hugh Rossi, the Minister of Pensions and the Disabled. He became Chairman of the Small Businesses Committee, a Fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust, and a member of the Executive Committee of IPU. His main interests while in Parliament were Treasury and taxation, small businesses, employment, and Southern Africa.
Immigration controversies
Townend was renowned for his controversial and outspoken views on race and immigration, which caused some consternation. In 1984, he suggested that foreigners employed in industries should be replaced by unemployed Britons, and in 1989 he stated that "England must be reconquered for the English. They should go back from whence they came." In 2001, shortly before his retirement as an MP, he became engulfed in a row within the Tory Party when, referring to a statement by Robin Cook that there was no such thing as a British race, he said that his constituents in Bridlington would not agree, and asked whether Labour's Robin Cook therefore thought instead that the British were a "mongrel race". He was chairman of the right-wing 92 Group.
