Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Lord Snowdon dies at the age of 86
LONDON: Celebrity photographer Lord Snowdon, former husband of Britain’s Princess Margaret, has died at the age of 86.
Born Antony Armstrong-Jones, he photographed some of the most famous faces of the 20th century, from Diana, Princess of Wales to Jack Nicholson and Elizabeth Taylor, in a career that lasted more than six decades.
However, he will be remembered as the man who married Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Margaret, in 1960 – a union that ended in divorce 18 years later.
The couple had two children and it is said Snowdon remained close to the monarchy. He is the only photographer to have had sittings with the queen throughout her long reign.
The Eton-educated photographer died peacefully at home yesterday, said Camera Press, the photographic agency he worked with for a number of years. Camera Press said in a short statement: “The Earl of Snowdon died peacefully at home on January 13, 2017.”
After his divorce from Margaret, amid rumours of her extra-marital affair, Snowdon married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, the former wife of film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
The marriage ended in divorce in 2000, this time facing allegations that Snowdon was having an affair.
There have been a number of similar claims made over the years.
The photographer turned his lens on the worlds of theatre, fashion and high society when he began his career in the 1950s. He became the royal photographer after his marriage to Margaret.
Snowdon with the queen
He is known for his six-decade association with Vogue and in the early 1960s worked with the Sunday Times Magazine on documentary subjects from mental health to loneliness.
The public stage, which was to bring glamour and marital disaster, was fully his on February 26, 1960, when his engagement to Margaret was announced.
The wedding, on May 6, was an impressive occasion at Westminster Abbey.
The following year it was revealed that Margaret was expecting a baby – the future Viscount Linley – and shortly afterwards the queen conferred an aristocratic title on Armstrong-Jones.
His title, Earl of Snowdon, was chosen because of his family associations with Carnarvonshire, where his father was a deputy lord lieutenant.
In need of more stimulation than royal life could provide, he was appointed artistic adviser by The Sunday Times in 1962.
But his new professional position brought controversy. Questions were asked in the House of Commons about suggestions that his connections were bringing him special treatment.
The couple’s second child, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, was born on May 1, 1964.
Rumours of a rift in the marriage began in 1967, when foreign newspapers began to carry stories of a private “battle royal”.
Snowdon vigorously denied the reports, telling reporters: “I love my wife.”
Then, in August 1970, an article appeared in the pres- tigious Ladies Home Journal in the US, claiming there were problems in the marriage.
Buckingham Palace issued denials of reports that separation was being discussed by December of that year.
Over the next five years the couple were seen together less and less and almost all the press attention was directed to speculation about Snowdon’s “romances” with society ladies such as Lady Jacqueline Rufus-Isaacs and Lady Harlech.
At the same time the popular press was concluding a romance was on between Margaret and landscape gardener Roddy Llewellyn.
The split came on March 19, 1976, with the Palace announcing they had “mutually agreed to live apart”, adding that there were “no plans for divorce proceedings”.
In 2014, Snowdon donated a series of his photographs, including ones of David Bowie, Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Laurence Olivier to the National Portrait Gallery.
The donation of 130 photographs is one of the largest gifts received by the gallery, and several of the portraits went on display for the first time in 2014. – Daily Mail