Ronald Armstrong-Jones

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronald Owen Lloyd Armstrong-Jones, MBE, QC (18 May 189927 January 1966) was a British soldier and the father of the 1st Earl of Snowdon.

The only son of Robert Armstrong-Jones, he was educated at Eton and on graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1922, he became a barrister in the Inner Temple. During World War I, he was a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery and a Major in the King's Royal Rifle Corps during World War II; he was invalided in 1945 after serving as Deputy Judge Advocate to Montgomery's staff at Normandy. From 1955-59, he was a member of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal and a sometime Governor of St Bartholomew's Hospital and a member of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers.

Armstrong-Jones was married three times. Firstly, to Anne Messel on 22 July 1925; they divorced in 1934 (Anne later married the 6th Earl of Rosse) after having two children, Antony (b. 1930) and Susan (c. 1932–1986). He married secondly, Carol Akhurst on 18 June 1936; they divorced in 1959 and Carol was killed in a car crash in 1966. Armstrong-Jones married thirdly, Jenifer Unite on 11 February 1960 and they had one son, Peregrine (b. 1960).