George Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend

George John Patrick Dominic Townshend, 7th Marquess Townshend (13 May 1916 – 23 April 2010), styled Viscount Raynham until 1921, was a British peer and businessman.

Background Townshend was the only son of John Townshend, 6th Marquess Townshend, and Gwladys Ethel Gwendolen Eugenie Sutherst. His education was at Harrow School, where he contracted a near-fatal case of septicaemia caused by a cricket injury.

Having held his titles since the death of his father in 1921, as of 2 March 2009 Lord Townshend had held a peerage longer than any other peer in history, having passed the previous mark of 87 years, 104 days, held by Charles St Clair, 13th Lord Sinclair (b. 30 July 1768, succeeded 16 December 1775, d. 30 March 1863).

As a hereditary peer, Lord Townshend was entitled to sit and vote in the House of Lords until 1999. He took his seat in 1937, when he reached maturity and received his writ of summons. He did not turn 21 until the day after the 1937 coronation of George VI, which he was allowed to attend as a minor.

Townshend sat as a Conservative, attending debates irregularly until the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999.

Career In 1936 he joined the Norfolk Yeomanry, later transferring to the Scots Guards and serving in World War II. In 1940, he was involved in a serious road accident in which a fellow officer, Lord Blythswood, was killed.

In 1958, Lord Townshend led the consortium Anglia Television in its successful bid to operate the ITV franchise for the east of England, and served as Chairman of Anglia for 28 years, to 1986. His other business interests included serving as vice-chairman of the Norwich Union insurance company, chairman of AP Bank, and a director of Riggs National Bank and London Merchant Securities.

He was chairman of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association and from 1951 to 1961, he was a Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk. Townshend was an active freemason.

Family Lord Townshend married, firstly, Elizabeth Pamela Audrey Luby (d. 1989), daughter of Lt.-Col. Thomas Luby, on 2 September 1939. They had three children:

Lady Carolyn Elizabeth Ann Townshend (born 27 September 1940); she married Antonio Capellini on 13 October 1962 and they were divorced in 1971. They have one son (Cenzo Townshend). She briefly remarried Edgar Bronfman in January 1973. Lady Joanna Agnes Townshend (born 19 August 1943); she married Jeremy Bradford, son of Commander George F. N. Bradford RN, on 27 September 1962 and they were divorced in 1968. They have one son. She remarried James Morrisey in 1978 and they were divorced in 1984. She married, lastly, Christian Boegnor in 1991. Charles Townshend, 8th Marquess Townshend (26 September 1945- -20 November 2025); he married Hermione Ponsonby on 9 October 1975. They had two children, including the current, 9th, Marquess. He remarried Alison Combs on 6 December 1990.

After he and his first wife were divorced in 1960, Lord Townshend married, secondly, Ann Frances Darlow (d. 1988), other_versions = The arms are also shown without the Vere quarters.