LORD SNOWDON
The decade known as the Swinging Sixties was dawning when Princess Margaret introduced her soon-to-be fiancé Tony Armstrong-Jones to the Queen Mother . His arrival was right on cue , when the Royal Family was being criticised for being too tweedy , and out of touch . A young and sexy photographer who had been cutting a swathe through London society , he was anything but dull . By the end of a convivial lunch the Queen Mother was captivated by his easy charm and thereafter encouraged her daughter to pursue the relationship . Tony liked the Queen Mother too , and enjoyed her coquettish familiarity touched with formality . Their friendship became close and was to survive until the end of her life .
For Margaret , whose love affair with the divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend had been thwarted three years earlier , he was a revelation – a touch flamboyant in manner and dress he was so different from the hand-picked polite young arm ’ s-length aristocrats who escorted her to Mayfair nightclubs and to the theatre . Above all he had a hint of danger about him which matched Margaret ' s rebellious streak .
Tony ' s friendship with the Princess began to develop in 1958 after they were introduced by Lady Elizabeth Cavendish , a sister of the Duke of Devonshire . He was an English rebel without a cause , with a wicked twinkle in his eye , and the suggestion of a pout . Margaret , unwillingly enduring the tedium of life at Court ( although she never objected to the privileges of royalty ), was intrigued by his lack of deference , and the seductive manner in which he whisked her anonymously down to his hideaway in Rotherhithe , south east London , for clandestine evenings away from Clarence House . Sometimes Margaret ' s fun loving mother came in tow , going to pubs , checking out the shops . The Queen ' s sister relished the naughtiness of it all , and told the French artistic giant Jean Cocteau : “ Disobedience is my joy .” Meanwhile , the Queen Mother , adopting the spirit of the age , remarked : “ I don ' t see anything wrong in swinging a little .”
Margaret and Tony became engaged on February 27 , 1960 . Tony was to become the first non-aristocrat to marry into R
I want to hold your hand : Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret meet the Beatles in 1965
28 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE