Education
He was educated at Ipswich Grammar School.
He was educated at Ipswich Grammar School.
With Richard Holt Hutton, he was joint-editor of the Spectator until 1887, and he was largely instrumental in making it an established success, writing most of the political articles and the opening paragraphs every week. His two chief publications were The Great Governing Families of England (1865), written in conjunction with Langton Sanford, and Asia and Europe (1901). Townsend was considered as one of the finest journalists of his day, and he has since been called "the greatest leader writer ever to appear in the English Press." Townsend was born at Bures, Suffolk on April 1, 1831.
In 1860, Townsend returned to England and purchased the weekly Spectator in partnership with Hutton.
Townsend and Hutton remained co-proprietors and joint editors for 25 years, taking a strong stand on some of the most controversial issues of their day. They also launched an all-out assault on Benjamin Disraeli, accusing him in a series of leaders of jettisoning ethics for politics by ignoring the atrocities committed against Bulgarian civilians by Turkey in the 1870s.
In 1887, Townsend was succeeded by John Street Loe Strachey, a young aristocrat who had replaced His (or Her) Highness Asquith (the future Prime Minister) as a leader-writer of the Spectator during the previous year." Towsend died at Little Bookham, Surrey, October
Townsend also contributed to a biography of the Islamic prophet Mohamed, which was presented predominantly from a British Imperial point of view.