Antony Armstrong-Jones, the photographer who was married to Princess Margaret, died today, aged 86.
His former employer, Camera Press, made the announcement in a short statement: “The Earl of Snowdon died peacefully at home on 13th January 2017.”
The BBC’s Nicholas Witchel said the Earl had been ill for a while, and while The Queen has been informed of Snowdon’s passing, the Palace did not comment further.
Armstrong-Jones married Princess Margaret in 1960, a few years after the Princess broke off her relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend. He was created Earl of Snowdon after the birth of his son, because of his family associations with Carnarvonshire, where his father was a deputy lord lieutenant.
Lord Snowdon was the first real commoner to wed a Princess for 450 years, and was known for his dislike of convention.
He was the son of barrister Ronald Armstrong-Jones QC, and society beauty Anne Messel, who went on to become the Countess of Rosse.
Margaret and Antony had two children together, David, Viscount Linley, and Lady Sarah Chatto.
After the Royal couple split in 1978, he remarried, a Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, but the couple divorced in 2000.
His photography – often of members of the Royal Family – and campaigning for the disabled earned him recognition. He contracted a form of polio as a child, and had to work had to regain the use of muscles in his legs, leading him to support various causes against discrimination of the disabled.
Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon, has died today. He was married to Princess Margaret. (RV1864)
