The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were joined by members of their family today in London at a service to remember the late Lord Snowdon.
Joining his grandparents at the memorial service was the Duke of Cambridge who was among 600 mourners who had gathered at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey on Friday morning.
Princess Margaret’s former husband died peacefully at the age of 86 in the January of this year.
Both of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon’s children were in attendance to join guests who were reflecting on their father’s life.
David, the now 2nd Earl of Snowdon, and Lady Sarah Chatto are the Queen’s nephew and niece respectively.
Also present were the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent among others.
The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, conducted the Service of Thanksgiving.
Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret had two children together before they separated, David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones.
The announcement of his engagement to Margaret, on 26 February 1960, took the press by surprise. Margaret had taken care to conceal the romance from reporters.
On 11 July 1978, the Snowdons’ divorce was finalised. It was the first divorce of a senior Royal since Princess Victoria of Edinburgh in 1901. Though her marriage to Lord Snowdon had begun with great happiness, with the addition of their children David and Sarah, their unhappiness began to be well known within the family and eventually in March 1976, an announcement was made regarding their separation.
In December 1978, he was married again, to Lucy Lindsay-Hogg and they had a daughter, Lady Frances, the next year. He continued his womanising ways and had a long affair with journalist Ann Hills, who committed suicide in 1996. At the age of 68, he fathered a son, Jasper, with 33-year-old Melanie Cable-Alexander, also a journalist. After this, he and Lucy finally divorced.
He became increasingly disabled from his childhood polio, although he continued to travel and work as a photographer.
