BIOGRAPHY:The alleged charm of Princess Margaret's husband also appears to have worked on his biographer, writes Robert O'Byrne.
THE MOST INJUDICIOUS decision ever made by Antony Armstrong-Jones was to marry a member of the British royal family. Specifically to marry Princess Margaret who, even before her death six years ago, had become a byword for unrelieved awfulness. Author Polly Devlin, whose husband has been a friend of Armstrong-Jones since the two men were at Eton together, recently described the Princess as the most un-charming person she has ever met, summarising the latter as "odious, arbitrary, rude and most of all didn't care who knew it because she was the only really important person in her life". It's a condemnation confirmed by Anne de Courcy's new biography of Armstrong-Jones, otherwise known as the Earl of Snowdon, a title granted by his sister-in-law a year after the wedding.
Ample examples are given of his wife's appalling behaviour: at dinner parties, it was required that she be served first and then she "would begin to eat straightaway and, a quick eater, finish quite a long time before others. As protocol forbade anyone continuing to eat after the Princess, those who could not bolt their food often only got half a dinner". Since she never had to work for a living, she liked to lie in bed until around 11 in the morning and then, at the end of a day filled with indulging her whims, would stay up drinking whisky late into the night; again, since according to the ghastly customs of British royalty no one could possibly leave before her, everybody else was expected somehow to remain awake and alert until she finally chose to retire. Such is the sort of behaviour permitted to relations of the head of state on the other side of the Irish Sea. Incidentally, although she visited and was welcomed to Ireland on a number of occasions during the 1960s when she came to see members of her husband's family, the Princess was reported in 1979 as commenting to the Mayor of Chicago that in her opinion the Irish were "pigs".
What's especially fascinating is to read how Princess Margaret's rudeness was not only encouraged but also emulated by those around her. Many members of the royal household took umbrage when in early 1960 it was announced that she intended to marry Armstrong-Jones, designated a "commoner" prior to receiving his earldom. During the course of the engagement, whenever he would lunch with his future mother-in-law the equerries and private secretaries present would show their feelings of contempt by serving drinks to everyone but the Princess's fiancé. Similarly, even after the wedding his wife's personal maid continued to express her disapproval each morning by bringing into the couple's bedroom only one cup of tea, this placed firmly beside the Princess.
Offensive as these slights may have been, far more insidious and far-reaching damage was inflicted on Snowdon by the limitations imposed on his post-marital professional life. Prior to the wedding he had been a full-time photographer in an age when work of this sort was regarded as distinctly déclassé, certainly by the royal family and the British aristocracy. Undeterred by social prejudice, the schoolboy Armstrong-Jones had already developed an eye for photography and for invention of all kinds; he used to make tiny crystal wireless sets which he then sold to classmates for half a crown, as well as a gadget for rolling cigarettes, a photographic enlarger from empty soup cans and an electric toaster. His strength of character was displayed in the way he overcame a potentially fatal bout of polio in his mid-teens, the lasting evidence of which has been a limp. After attending Cambridge for a year and having a short apprenticeship with the society photographer Baron, he opened his own studio in London and soon began to attract plenty of work and attention. As well as being ambitious and hard-working, he was also innovative both in his style and technique with the result that he quickly built up a successful business. Unlike many of his Eton contemporaries, he was prepared to take risks, in part because he had to do so; although his father was a well-known barrister and his mother en secondes noces married the Earl of Rosse, Antony Armstrong-Jones needed to earn a living.
THAT CHANGED, of course, after the wedding; how many newly married couples begin their life together attended by a butler, under-butler, chef, chauffeur, footman, housekeeper, kitchen maid and personal maid (supplemented by a nanny and nursemaid once children came along)? And although Snowdon continued to work, and still does to this day despite an accumulation of infirmities, circumstances had irreparably changed. First of all, he was expected to fit into his wife's world, which meant not only walking two steps behind the Princess on all public occasions, always smiling and never saying anything that might possibly be construed as controversial, but in addition accompanying her on family holidays to the likes of Balmoral, where at least his limp excused him from deerstalking (although he was still obliged to display some skill at shooting and fishing).
More importantly, from being something of an iconoclast, he became a member of the establishment, with the inevitable consequences on his photography. Assignments had to be assessed lest they could cause offence to the royal family, his association with whom no doubt brought in some jobs but just as likely deflected others. Employing the Earl of Snowdon was quite a different proposition from giving a job to Tony Armstrong-Jones.
Anne de Courcy wastes little time pondering the consequences for her subject of marriage to Princess Margaret, preoccupied as she is with discussing his sundry affairs and the offspring produced therefrom. In fact the theme of this book is not so much Armstrong-Jones the photographer as Snowdon the philanderer - he has been prolific in both fields.
Although summoning up sympathy for the Princess is something of a challenge, it must be admitted that during his marriage to her - and indeed his second marriage - Margaret's husband was not the easiest or most attentive of spouses. Details of all of this are relayed with relish by de Courcy. And although the couple divorced 30 years ago and he has carried on with his career ever since, Snowdon is still defined primarily by his association with the British royal family; after all, what other photographer of his generation has been the beneficiary of a 400-plus page biography?
Charm is a quality notoriously difficult to convey in print but he must have it in spades since women continue to be enraptured in his presence. What a pity one of them is de Courcy herself as it means her book contains a feast of amusing tittle-tattle but lacks even the semblance of critical rigour. And placing Abbeyleix in Co Waterford suggests the likelihood of other factual inaccuracies. A book best read with one eyebrow well arched.
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Robert O'Byrne is a writer and journalist. His history of the Irish Georgian Society will be published in the autumn
Snowdon: The Biography By Anne de Courcy Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 404pp. £20