Below is a snapshot of the Web page as it appeared on 4/29/2024 (the last time our crawler visited it). This is the version of the page that was used for ranking your search results. The page may have changed since we last cached it. To see what might have changed (without the highlights), go to the current page.
Bing is not responsible for the content of this page.
Anthony Armstrong-Jones (March 7, 1930 — 2017), British Photographer |
World Biographical Encyclopedia
Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon with the United States president Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird at the White House on 17 November 1965
Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, commonly known as Lord Snowdon, was a British photographer and filmmaker.
Background
Armstrong-Jones was the only son from the marriage of the barrister Ronald Armstrong-Jones (1899-1966) and his first wife Anne Messel (later Countess of Rosse; 1902-1992). He was born at Eaton Terrace, Belgravia, in London. He was called "Tony" by his close relatives.
Armstrong-Jones's paternal grandfather was Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, the British psychiatrist and physician. His paternal grandmother, Margaret Armstrong-Jones (née Roberts), was the daughter of Sir Owen Roberts, the Welsh educationalist. A maternal uncle was Oliver Messel (1904-1978) and a maternal great-grandfather was the Punch cartoonist Linley Sambourne (1844-1910), and his great-great-uncle Alfred Messel was a well-known Berlin architect. Additionally, his great-great-grandmother, Frances Linley, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Linley, wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Armstrong-Jones's parents divorced in 1935 when he was five years old.
Education
Anthony Armstrong-Jones was educated at two independent boarding schools: firstly at Sandroyd School in Wiltshire from the autumn term of 1938 to 1943.
He attended Eton College, beginning in the Michaelmas term of 1943. In March 1945, he qualified in the "extra special weight" class of the School Boxing Finals. He continued to box in 1946, gaining at least two flattering mentions in the Eton College Chronicle. In 1947, he was a coxswain in Eton's traditional "Fourth of June" Daylight Procession of Boats.
He then matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied architecture but failed his second-year exams. He coxed the winning Cambridge boat in the 1950 Boat Race.
After university, Anthony Armstrong-Jones a career as a photographer in fashion, design and theatre. His stepmother had a friend who knew Baron the photographer; Baron visited Armstrong-Jones in his London flat, which doubled as his work studio. Baron, impressed, agreed to bring on Armstrong-Jones as an apprentice, first on a fee-paying basis but eventually, as his talent and skills became apparent to Baron, as a salaried associate.
Anthony Armstrong-Jones later became known for his royal studies, among which were the official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh for their 1957 tour of Canada. He was also an early contributor to Queen magazine, the magazine founded by his friend Jocelyn Stevens.
In the early 1960s, Armstrong-Jones became the artistic adviser of The Sunday Times Magazine, and by the 1970s had established himself as one of Britain's most respected photographers. Though his work included everything from fashion photography to documentary images of inner city life and the mentally ill, he is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The Daily Telegraph magazine.
In 1968 Anthony Armstrong-Jones made his first documentary film, Don't Count the Candles, for the US television network CBS, on the subject of ageing. It won seven awards including two Emmys. This was followed by Love of a kind (1969), about the British and animals, Born to be small (1971) about people of restricted growt and Happy being happy (1973).
In 2000, Armstrong-Jones was given a retrospective exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Photographs by Snowdon: A Retrospective, which travelled to the Yale Center for British Art the following year. More than 180 of his photographs were displayed in an exhibition that honoured what the museums called "a rounded career with sharp edges".
In 2006, Tomas Maier, creative director of the Italian fashion brand Bottega Veneta, sought Snowdon to photograph his Fall/Winter 2006 campaign.
Anthony Armstrong-Jones died peacefully at his home in Kensington on 13 January 2017, aged 86. His funeral took place on 20 January at St Baglan's Church in the remote village of Llanfaglan near Caernarfon. He was buried in the family plot in the churchyard.
Achievements
On July 7, 1969 Antony Armstrong-Jones was awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. In 1985, he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Progress Medal and an Honorary Fellowship.
During his royal marriage, Anthony Armstrong-Jones was patron of the National Youth Theatre, the Contemporary Art Society for Wales, the Welsh Theatre Company, and the Civic Trust for Wales. He was also President of the British Theatre Museum.
In June 1980 Anthony Armstrong-Jones started an award scheme for disabled students. This scheme, administered by the Snowdon Trust, provides grants and scholarships for students with disabilities.
In the 1960s, Anthony Armstrong-Jones served in the capacity of a council member of the Polio Research Fund, as it was known before it was renamed the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases. He served as a trustee of the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases (since renamed Action Medical Research). Anthony Armstrong-Joneswas president for England of the International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981. He was provost of the Royal College of Art from 1995 to 2003.
Physical Characteristics:
As a schoolboy Anthony Armstrong-Jones contracted polio while on holiday at country home in Wales. During the six months that he was in Liverpool Royal Infirmary recuperating, his only family visits were from his sister Susan.
Connections
Anthony Armstrong-Jones was married twice. He was married first to Princess Margaret (1960 to 1978), and second to Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg (1978 to 2000).
In February 1960, Anthony Armstrong-Jones became engaged to the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, and they married on 6 May 1960 at Westminster Abbey. Despite the public enthusiasm, "some critics disapproved of a commoner marrying into the royal family". The couple had two children: David, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, born 3 November 1961, and Lady Sarah, born 1 May 1964.
The marriage began to collapse early and publicly; various causes may have been behind the failure. On her side there was a penchant for late-night partying, while on Anthony's an undisguised sexual profligacy. The couple remained married sixteen years. The marriage was accompanied by drugs, alcohol and bizarre behaviour by both parties, such as his leaving lists of "things I hate about you" for the princess to find between the pages of books she read.
Among Anthony's lovers in the late 1960s was Lady Jacqueline Rufus-Isaacs, daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Reading. In spite of her own affairs, Margaret was said to be particularly upset when hearing about this woman. They separated in 1976, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1978.
In 2004, The Telegraph reported that Anthony Armstrong-Jones had fathered an illegitimate daughter shortly before marrying Princess Margaret. Anne de Courcy reports the claim by Polly Fry, born on 28 May 1960, in the third week of Lord Snowdon's marriage to Princess Margaret, and brought up as a daughter of Jeremy Fry, inventor and member of the Fry's chocolate family, and his first wife, Camilla, that she was in fact Snowdon's daughter. Polly Fry asserted that a DNA test in 2004 proved Snowdon's paternity. Jeremy Fry rejected her claim, and Snowdon denied having taken a DNA test. However, four years later, he admitted that this account was true.
After his divorce from Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon married Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg (née Davies) on 15 December 1978. Armstrong-Jones's youngest daughter with Lucy Mary is Lady Frances Armstrong-Jones, a designer and board member of the Snowdon Trust. She was born on 17 July 1979 and married Rodolphe von Hofmannsthal in 2006. From 1976 until 1996, Anthony Armstrong-Jones also had a mistress, journalist Ann Hills. She died by suicide on 31 December 1996.
The couple separated in 2000 after the revelation that Anthony Armstrong-Jones, then aged 67, had fathered a son, Jasper William Oliver Cable-Alexander (born 30 April 1998), with Melanie Cable-Alexander, an editor at Country Life magazine.
Father:
Ronald Armstrong-Jones
Major Ronald Owen Lloyd Armstrong-Jones was a Welsh barrister and soldier.
Mother:
Anne Parsons
Anne Parsons, Countess of Rosse (nee Messel, previously Armstrong-Jones) was a society hostess and one of the founders of The Victorian Society.
Spouse:
Princess Margaret
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.
Margaret spent much of her childhood with her parents and sister. Her life changed dramatically in 1936, when her paternal uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry a divorcée, Wallis Simpson. Margaret's father became king, and her sister became heir presumptive, with Margaret second in line to the throne. During the Second World War, the two sisters stayed at Windsor Castle, despite suggestions to evacuate them to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was considered too young to perform any official duties and instead continued her education.
After the war, Margaret fell in love with Group Captain Peter Townsend. In 1952, Margaret's father died, her sister became queen, and Townsend divorced his first wife. Early the following year, he proposed to Margaret. Many in the government believed he would be an unsuitable husband for the Queen's 22-year-old sister, and the Church of England refused to countenance marriage to a divorced man. Margaret eventually abandoned her plans with him, and in 1960 she married the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon by the Queen. The couple had two children: David and Sarah.
Spouse:
Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg
maternal uncle:
Oliver Messel
Son:
David Armstrong-Jones
David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon styled as Viscount Linley until 2017 and known professionally as David Linley, is an English furniture maker and a former chairman of the auction house Christie's UK.
Daughter:
Sarah Armstrong-Jones
Lady Sarah Frances Elizabeth Chatto (née Armstrong-Jones) is a member of the extended British royal family.
Snowdon
The most sensational book on the Royal Family in recent times by Sunday Telegraph. How did a photographer who was a relentless playboy, an unashamed womaniser and a leather-clad motorcyclist marry the Queen's sister and become the Establishment figure Lord Snowdon?
2009
Snowdon: A Life In View
A personal and complete retrospective by one of the most important twentieth-century photographers. Elegantly curated by the legendary photographer and his youngest daughter Frances von Hofmannsthal, Snowdon looks back at an exceptional life and features a selection of 175 full-color and black-and-white stylish fashion photographs and iconic portraits taken throughout his expansive and influential career.
