By Larry Gardner

Earl Snowdon’s Autobiography Doesn’t Reflect Clean Living

A new book on Princess Margaret’s former husband, “Snowdon: The Autobiography,” by Anne de Courcy, reveals a man whom random liaisons and multiple affairs were not uncommon. The former Anthony Armstrong Jones, the son of a London barrister, became the first commoner in 450 years to marry a British Princess when he wed the 29-year-old sister of the Queen in 1960. He was made Earl of Snowdon on his wedding day, and later, given a lifetime peerage as the first Lord Snowdon. Just three weeks after the nuptials, a former girlfriend gave birth to his daughter which was only acknowledged by DNA evidence in 2004. The fiery Royal marriage subsisted on alcohol and drug fuelled showbiz parties, where the Princess finally tired of her husband’s enthusiastic extra-marital activities and after an official separation in 1976, they were divorced two years later. They had two children, David, Viscount Linley, and Lady Sarah Chatto.

Within a few months he had married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, with whom he had a daughter, but his stimulation for other pastimes brought that union to an end in 2000. A famed Fleet Street journalist hammered on his door demanding an interview and to sleep with him and he obligingly agreed to both requests. A son with another journalist brought his second marriage to an abrupt finish. Liaisons with stunning actresses and skinny models, plus dalliances with the daughters’ of Britain’s aristocrats produced a crowded social and recreational calendar for Snowdon.

Today, at 78, he suffers a reoccurrence of former childhood polio symptoms and uses a wheelchair and sticks to get around. Throughout his career he never lost the respect and patronage of the Royal family however, and his ability as court photographer brought him a series of big contracts with glossy magazines and upscale periodicals. Over one hundred examples of his work can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery.

“I’m not royal,” he once said of his marriage to Princess Margaret. “I’m just married to one.”

Police Strike Gold In London Safety Deposit Box Raid

London Police completed a two-year investigation against a deposit box company they suspected was a cover for criminal loot when they raided the firm’s operating premises in Park Lane, Hampstead and Edgware. 300 police were involved in an operation, which opened over 7,000 safety deposit boxes belonging to Safe Deposit Centre Limited. Suitcases bulging with gold dust, heroin and cocaine, millions of pounds of cash, counterfeit currency, forged passports, suspicious credit cards, expensive jewelry, firearms, and several piece of art were all retrieved during the police raid. Detectives feel that organized crime was in collusion with the owners (who have since been arrested) to store their ill-gotten assets within the safety of the secured deposit boxes.

“I’m confident that this operation will have a damaging impact on organized crime in London, and around the rest of the country,” said Commander Allan Gibson of the Metropolitan Police, who confirmed it was part of an overall investigation into London crime.