Memorial Service

The Royal Family were well represented at St Margaret’s, Westminster, for the memorial service of the Earl of Snowdon. The Queen attended, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, Princes William, Harry, Andrew and Edward, the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester.

As husband of the Queen’s younger sister, Princess Margaret, ArmstrongJones became the Earl of Snowdon. This didn’t stop some people saying a commoner had become the Queen’s brother-in-law. He became a good friend of the Queen and continued to take pictures of her long after he divorced HRH.

The truth is that Lord Snowdon was as grand as any of the Royals, but always did his best to disguise it. His father was a QC, his mother became the Countess of Rosse and his half-brother is the current Earl of Rosse. His late sister was the Viscountess de Vesci and the current Viscount, her son, read a lesson from 1 Corinthians. Snowdon’s son married the daughter of the Earl of Harrington. It was wall-to-wall Debrett’s in the church. They even played the ‘Eton Boating Song’ as a tribute to his old school – and his prowess on the river when he became cox of the victorious Cambridge eight in 1950. What could be grander than that?

‘My father was a rebel, but never the sort of rebel to do what rebels are expected to do,’ said the new Earl of Snowdon, David Linley, the cabinet maker, furniture designer and chairman of Christie’s. ‘Of course, he would never describe himself as a rebel but then he was not fond of describing himself as anything much.’

The new Lord Snowdon said his father was always endearingly underwhelmed by his own talents. ‘He made fun of being a photographer, not out of false modesty but because he genuinely thought of himself as a failure,’ said Snowdon No 2, listing his many achievements: designing an aviary for London Zoo, masterminding the investiture of the Prince of Wales and improving the lot of the disabled. ‘In my eyes, too, he was a failure – as a failure, that is. My father was a supremely talented amateur in a sense we no longer understand.’

Another furniture designer, Snowdon’s cousin Thomas Messel, read from Isaiah: ‘The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth.’

Accompanied by Hannah Stone on the harp, Sir Bryn Terfel brought a stirringly Welsh tone to the service, singing ‘All Through the Night’ in Welsh and English. JAMES HUGHES-ONSLOW