Shropshire Star

‘Rebel’ Lord Snowdon hailed at Service of Thanksgiving

The photographer died peacefully at home on January 13 this year.

Published

Lord Snowdon was a “rebel” who considered himself a “failure”, his son has said at a service to remember the celebrity photographer and former husband of Princess Margaret.

The Second Earl of Snowdon paid tribute to his father at the Service of Thanksgiving attended by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, as well as other royals and stars from the art world.

David Armstrong-Jones said his father “was a rebel, but never the sort of rebel to do what one might expect rebels to do” … “who thought of himself as a failure”.

David Armstrong-Jones
David Armstrong-Jones paid tribute to his father (Hannah McKay/PA)

“In my eyes too, he was a failure – as a failure, that is.”

He questioned how someone who had created such a “sensitive” body of photographic work could have failed, and said his father had coxed the Cambridge University crew to victory in the 1950 boat race, water-skied across the English Channel and campaigned “tirelessly for the disabled”.

The Earl concluded: “It is said one should never meet one’s heroes, for fear that they might disappoint. I had the privilege of living with my hero – my only great disappointment now is that I can never any more spend any time with him.”

Lady Sarah Chatto – Lord Snowdon’s daughter with Princess Margaret – was at the service, along with his children from other relationships: Lady Frances von Hofmannsthal, Jasper Cable-Alexander and Polly Fry.

Lady Frances Armstrong-Jones, second left, and her husband Rodolphe von Hofmannsthal, second right, arrive at the service
Lady Frances von Hofmannsthal, second left, and her husband Rodolphe von Hofmannsthal, second right, arrive at the service (Justin Tallis/PA)

Patrick Kinmonth, an opera director, designer and writer, read a tribute to Lord Snowdon, describing him as a man who “never quite played by the rules”, but who was a “delightful friend and kindred spirit”.

Paralympic gold medal winner Baroness Grey-Thompson – a trustee of the disability charity Snowdon Trust – said Lord Snowdon, whose leg was injured by polio in his childhood, had helped “many, many thousands” of disabled people through his work and “highlighted the issues that affected people like me”.

Opera star Sir Bryn Terfel and his fiancee, harpist Hannah Stone, performed at the service, which was led by the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster.

Afterwards, the Queen, wearing a purple coat and hat, gathered with Lord Snowdon’s family on the steps of the church.

Marjorie Wallace, a former journalist and founder of the mental health charity Sane, with whom Lord Snowdon had a five-year relationship, told reporters: “He was always mischievous… For instance, he would drive around with the blacked-up windows open in the middle of the rain, and I would say: ‘Tony, I’m getting really wet’, and he would say: ‘Well, how else will they recognise me?'”

Actor and writer Stephen Fry also paid tribute to Lord Snowdon, saying he was a “very gentle and tender man, he was obstinate as well which made him the great photographer he was”.

Stephen Fry attends the service
Stephen Fry paid tribute to Lord Snowdon (Hannah McKay/PA)

Lord Snowdon, born Antony Armstrong-Jones, died peacefully at home on January 13 this year aged 86.

The Eton-educated photographer took portraits of the most famous faces of the 20th century, from Diana, Princess of Wales to Jack Nicholson and Elizabeth Taylor, in a career that lasted more than six decades.

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon waving to the crowds on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding ceremony
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon wave to the crowds on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding ceremony (PA)

But it was his marriage to the Queen’s sister Princess Margaret in 1960, a union that ended in divorce 18 years later, for which he is remembered.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.