Rosemary Pratt, Marchioness Camden

Rosemary Pratt, Marchioness Camden (9 May 1921 – 27 February 2004), born Cecil Rosemary Pawle, was a British socialite and artist, best known as the first wife of Group Captain Peter Townsend, who later became romantically involved with Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom.

Rosemary was the daughter of Brigadier Hanbury Pawle CBE DL (1886–1972), a Deputy Lieutenant for Hertfordshire, by his marriage to Mary Cecil Hughes-Hallett (d. 1971), both of whom were from families of the landed gentry. On 17 July 1941 at Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, she married Peter Townsend (1914–1995). Townsend was a decorated Royal Air Force pilot, who early in the Second World War had brought down the first German bomber to crash in England since 1918. In 1941, he was recovering from injuries incurred in a dogfight. The young Rosemary met the glamorous young ace, and married him after a whirlwind two-week courtship. Townsend later joined the Royal Household in 1944 under an "equerries of honour scheme". With Townsend, she had two sons, Giles (1942–2015) and Hugo (born 1945). King George VI acted as godfather to Hugo, who was briefly a monk and later married Yolande Princesse de Ligne, fourth daughter of Antoine, 13th Prince of Ligne.

Their marriage began to collapse due to Townsend's prolonged absences from home. According to news reports, he later discovered Rosemary's affair with John de László, the youngest son of the painter Philip de László, and was granted a decree nisi in 1952 for his wife's adultery. Since Townsend was a divorced man, and divorce was then anathema to the British Establishment and the Royal Household, Princess Margaret was later effectively forbidden to marry Townsend, told that she would lose her Royal status and privileges if she did so.

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