LORD SNOWDON
the Royal Family for 400 years, but he was by no means a parvenu. He came from the Welsh gentry, the son of a barrister and a society hostess, the Countess of Rosse. Despite having been educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was making his living as a portrait photographer of the rich and famous. Their wedding took place in Westminster Abbey on May 6. It was the first great royal event since the coronation of Elizabeth II. Now, seven years later, the country was bursting into the 1960s, and what The Queen ' s biographer Lady Longford called“ a period of brittle animation”. Two days before the wedding The Queen gave a party for 2000 at Buckingham Palace in honour of the new couple. The Joe Loss Band played numbers from the cockney pop show“ Fings Aint Wot They Used To Be,” and Tony ' s bohemian friends mingled with the Establishment.
Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret enjoy the countryside
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon on honeymoon aboard the royal yacht Britannia in 1960
“ Tony and Margaret were revitalising the monarchy, updating it to an age of fast cars and short skirts”
Tony and Margaret were revitalising the monarchy, updating it to an age of fast cars and short skirts. The Queen and Prince Philip did their best to keep pace, but Philip ' s new green 100mph Alvis seemed staid compared with Tony ' s motorbike on which he raced round London with his wife on the back, both of them dressed in black leathers. Huge crowds thronged The Mall hoping to catch a glimpse of the newly-weds as they processed from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace. Had the public – or the Royal Family – known how the marriage would develop and eventually disintegrate in a welter of vitriol and promiscuity on both sides, those crowds would have been considerably reduced and less starry eyed. At that time, R
SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE 31