by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon was born on November 3, 1961, at Clarence House in London, England. He was the first child and only son of Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom and Antony Armstrong-Jones, and one of the six grandchildren of King George VI of the United Kingdom.

 

The month before David was born, his father was created Earl of Snowdon and Viscount Linley due to concerns that a British princess would give birth to a child without a title. The heir of a British peer is allowed to use the second title of the noble parent as a courtesy title, so David was styled Viscount Linley and became the 2nd Earl of Snowdon upon his father’s death on January 13, 2017. Professionally, he is known as David Linley. On December 19, 1961, David was christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Michael Ramsey. His godparents were Lady Bruce Dundas, Nigel Harvey, Nick Powell, Orlando Rock, Lucinda Cecil, and Rita Konig.

 

David has one sibling:

• Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones Chatto (born 1964), married Daniel Chatto, had two sons

When he was five years old, David began his education in the schoolroom at Buckingham Palace with his first cousin Prince Andrew.  David then attended the Gibbs School in Kensington, London, England, and the Ashdown House School in East Sussex, England. Next, he attended the now-closed Millbrook House School, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. David finished his secondary education at Bedales School in Steep, Hampshire, England where he developed an interest in arts and crafts.

From 1980-1982, David studied the craft of woodworking at Parnham College in Beaminster, Dorset, England. In 1976, furniture maker John Makepeace bought Parnham House and founded the Parnham Trust and the School for Craftsmen in Wood. It later became Parnham College with the goal “to provide integrated courses in design, making and management for aspiring furniture makers, alongside but separately from his own furniture workshops.” In 2000, the school moved to a new campus in Hooke Park, England, and is now known as the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

LINLEY store on Pimlico Road in London

David Linley has had a career as a furniture designer and maker and set up his own company LINLEY in 1985. From his company’s website: “I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by beautiful things. Instead of taking these for granted, I wanted to find out more about the making process, whether a vase, a car, a sculpture or indeed a piece of furniture. When I was a small boy, my grandmother challenged me to find a secret drawer in a bureau that she treasured. I still remember the exhilaration when I eventually found it. I couldn’t understand how it was possible to conceal something so cleverly, so resolved to find out how. This was really when my interest in woodworking began.”

David does not have an official role, but he does take part in Royal Family events, such as Trooping the Color. In 2002, while his grandmother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was lying in state at Westminster Hall, David, along with his first cousins The Prince of Wales, The Duke of York, and The Earl of Wessex, stood guard around their grandmother’s coffin.

 

David married The Honorable Serena Stanhope, a daughter of Viscount Petersham (now the 12th Earl of Harrington) at St. Margaret’s Church in Westminster, London, England on October 8, 1993. On February 17, 2020, David and Serena announced that they intend to divorce. A spokesperson for the couple said: “The Earl and Countess of Snowdon have amicably agreed that their marriage has come to an end and that they shall be divorced. They ask that the press respect their privacy and that of their family.”

The couple has two children:

• Charles Patrick Inigo Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (born 1999)
• Lady Margarita Elizabeth Rose Alleyne Armstrong-Jones (born 2002)

In 2012, David’s son Charles was appointed to be the First Page of Honor of his great-aunt, Queen Elizabeth II. This is a ceremonial position granted to teenage sons of the nobility and requires attendance on state occasions when the pages usually carry the long train of the Sovereign’s attire.

David’s daughter Lady Margarita Elizabeth Rose Alleyne Armstrong-Jones was born shortly after the deaths of her grandmother Princess Margaret (whose middle name was Rose) and her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and was named after them. She was also a bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones on the right

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