Rosemary Pratt, Marchioness Camden, born Cecil Rosemary Pawle, was a British socialite and artist, best known as the first wife of Group Captain Peter Townsend, who later became romantically involved with Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom.
Background
Rosemary was the daughter of Brigadier-General Hanbury Pawle Commander of the Order of the British Empire Doctor of Laws (1886–1972), a Deputy Lieutenant for Hertfordshire, by his marriage to Mary Cecil Hughes-Hallett (d 1971), both of whom were from families of the landed gentry.
Career
Townsend was a decorated Royal Air Force pilot, who early in the Second World War had brought down the first German bomber to crash in England since 1918. In 1941, he was recovering from injuries incurred in a dogfight. Townsend later joined the Royal Household in 1944 under an "equerries of honour scheme".
With Townsend, she had two sons, Giles (1942–2015) and Hugo (born 1945).
Their marriage began to collapse due to Townsend"s prolonged absences from home. According to news reports, he later discovered Rosemary"s affair with John de László, the youngest son of the painter Philip de László, and was granted a decree nisi in 1952 for his wife"s adultery.
Since Townsend was a divorced man, and divorce was then anathema to the British Establishment and the Royal Household, Princess Margaret was later effectively forbidden to marry Townsend, told that she would lose her Royal status and privileges if she did southern Princess Margaret and Townsend became close at some point before Townsend sued for divorce in November 1952.
Most obituaries state that the Princess turned to Townsend for comfort after the sudden death of her father in February 1952.
Rosemary married de László a year later and they had two children, Piers and Charlotte. John de László worked first in export and later as a stockbroker. According to The Times obituary, she had previously refused large sums from newspapers which wanted exclusives.