Was there more to Princess Margaret's forbidden lover Peter Townsend than meets the eye? Inside the life of the war hero who was 15 years older than her - and later claimed 'the sex-urge is a rather unfair device employed by god'

Despite coming from little wealth and low birth, Group Captain Peter Townsend won the heart of a princess.

The tall, handsome and fearless RAF war hero has been remembered throughout history as the man who almost tempted Princess Margaret to give up her gilded life in the Royal Family to marry him.

But she declined because his status as a divorcee meant she would have had to give up her status as a royal - a move which was seen around the world as choosing duty before love.

The end to their romance ensured it was remembered as one of the 20th century's most tragic love stories. 

However over recent years, questions have swirled about the eyebrow-raising age gap between the pair. Margaret was just 14 when she met Townsend, a 29-year-old married father.

Townsend later claimed 'the sex-urge is a rather unfair device employed by god' and 'he has incorporated in our make-up an insatiable capacity for pleasures which flow from love'.

The pilot also admitted in later years to lifting up a little girl's skirt as a child but said he was let off due to 'something about me which provoked women's tenderness and indulgence'.

Now on the day 110 years after his birth, MailOnline looks back at the life of the man who was at the centre of one of the greatest royal crises - Peter Townsend.

Townsend was born on November 22, 1914, in Rangoon, Burma, to Lieutenant Colonel Edward Townsend and his wife Gladys.

One of seven children, Peter was just a few months old when his mother brought him back to the family home in Devon.

In his autobiography Time and Chance, which was published in 1978, Townsend wrote about his nanny Constance, saying: 'She was a nice, if slightly prim girl, who managed, despite her gold pince-nez, to look rather pretty. 

'I was not in the least displeased to share her room and sleep in a bed alongside hers.'

He also revealed the first time he held hands on the way to school with a beautiful girl called Rosemary as a child.

He wrote: 'She was five, with a character as sweet as her gentle, laughing eyes and her lovely face. I loved her.'

Townsend was frank about his experiences with the opposite sex as a child, admitting he lifted up the skirt of a girl.

'For - encouraged, I must say, by other horrid little boys - I had lifted the skirt of a little girl called Betty. 

'I did this not because I was curious to discover what lay beneath - having sisters I already knew - but simply to humiliate Betty, a rather pretentious little girl.

But instead of being whipped, expelled or reported to his parents, Townsend was told by his teacher: 'You are a very naughty boy. Don't you ever dare to do it again.' 

He wrote about the episode: 'But there was something about me that impressed my judge - my innocent look, perhaps. There is something about me which provoked women's tenderness and indulgence.'

In another instance Townsend wrote when he put his arms around his teacher's 'slim wait' as a boy he 'without quite knowing why, felt a tremor of pleasure'.

After attending private school, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1930, training at RAF Cranwell, and was commissioned as a pilot officer in 1935. 

In 1937 he started dating a Danish girl called Bodil, whom he described as 'a blue-eyed, fair-skinned Danish goddess with an authentic goddess's name'.

Upon meeting her he wrote: 'She took my hand and I fell in love for the rest time - madly, but, alas, impossibly in love.'

But she moved to Denmark and in an effort to see her, Townsend 'saved every penny' he had for the airfare which was about a month's pay for a single trip. Although eventually the war 'unkindly severed' the relationship.

Following four years of service at RAF Cranwell, Townsend went on to serve as a Squadron Leader in the Battle of Britain in the Second World War.

He was mentioned in despatches for his role in protecting shipping convoys from the air and shooting down enemy aircraft.

In 1941 he married Rosemary Pawle, later writing about the marriage: 'I could not wait to make her my wife, for life in those dangerous days seemed a brief precarious thing. 

'So, true to that war-time phenomenon, the urge to reproduce, we rushed hand-in-hand to the altar. Exactly nine months later, our first child was born.'

He later admitted the pair never really suited each other and they married because he 'stepped out of the cockpit and married the first pretty girl I met'.

During the war he often came close to death, later writing: 'Each time I took off, I felt sure it would be the last. 

'I found myself reacting to the smallest shudder of my aircraft, the lightest engine vibration, gripping the controls tighter and telling myself "This is it".' 

But at a time when the life expectancy of a pilot was short, the ace managed to shoot down 11 enemy aircraft in more than 300 operational sorties.

He also bailed out of his Hurricane twice - once when he was forced to ditch the stricken aircraft in the English Channel, and then after he was hit in the foot by cannon fire. 

It wasn't until 1944 that Townsend was appointed to the position that would cement his place in history - the new equerry King George VI.

He met Princess Margaret, 14, and her elder sister the future Queen Elizabeth, 17, on his first day at Buckingham Palace.

Then in 1947, his role as equerry saw him accompany Margaret during a three-month royal tour of South Africa.

Townsend would then have been aged 32, whilst Margaret was 17.

It is unknown when the pair's romance formally began, but the late Queen's lady-in-waiting later claimed Townsend encouraged Margaret when he arrived and took advantage of his proximity to her.

More clues to when their relationship began were revealed by Daily Mail columnist Craig Brown in 2017 when he wrote that when on a trip to Belfast, Townsend requested to change his room to the one next to Margaret.

And although standards were different back then, more than 70 years ago, even today the idea of a married man in his 30s asking to be in such close proximity to a girl of 17 would raise eyebrows.

Addressing the revelation, an old friend of Margaret told the Daily Mail in 2017: 'This was playing with fire, a terrible risk for her reputation and that of the Royal Family. 

'It's a miracle it hasn't come out before. I have to say, though, that having met Peter Townsend, I would be surprised if he was sleeping with the Princess when she was so young.' 

Margaret later told a confidante: 'We rode together every morning in that wonderful country, in marvellous weather. That's when I really fell in love with him.'

Townsend wrote about the princess: 'She was a girl of unusual, intense beauty, confined as it was in her short, slender figure and centred about large purple-blue eyes, generous, sensitive lips and a complexion as smooth as a peach.

'Yet I dare say that there was not one among them more touched by the Princess's joie de vivre than I, for, in my present marital predicament, it gave me what I most lacked - joy.'

He was a war hero due to his status as one of 'The Few' – a courageous Battle of Britain pilot who had helped save the nation from Nazi invasion and his RAF uniform decorated with medals attesting to his gallantry. 

Margaret later admitted to having a 'terrific crush' on Townsend when she first met him.

The pair's romance was cemented when they grew closer following the death of King George in 1952.

Margaret had increasingly relied on Townsend as she tried to cope with the darkness that had overwhelmed her since her father's death in 1952.

Whisky, pills, tranquillisers and cigarettes did little to help with the pain. Only Townsend – soothing, calm and gentle – could lighten her moods, according to royal expert Andrew Morton.

'During 1952, Princess Margaret and I found increasing solace in one another's company,' Townsend wrote.

'The year began with the Princess's grief, caused by the sudden death of her father; it continued with the change in her own family situation - living alone with her mother (whom she adored) - and the steady deterioration in mine; it ended in the break-up of my family.

'If on the material plane, as well as temperamentally, the Princess and I were worlds apart, we responded, in our feelings and emotions, as one.'

Townsend eventually filed for a divorce from Rosemary in November 1952. In April 1953 Townsend proposed to Margaret.

Their relationship became public after the Queen's Coronation in June that year, when Margaret was seen tenderly removing a piece of fluff from Townsend's uniform.

However, Margaret's sister, now the Queen, had to consent to her marriage to a divorced man.

The monarch's status as head of the Church of England complicated things.

With both the Royal Family and the British government still recovering from Edward VIII's abdication in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, who was divorced, Queen Elizabeth was advised it would be unconstitutional for her to approve the match.

It was decided that Townsend would be sent away to work as an air attaché for the British Embassy in Brussels for a year, after which, the couple was asked to wait another year.

Although Margaret had now turned 25, they were still denied the right to wed, and the government - led by Prime Minister Anthony Eden - stated that if she married her love then she would be stripped of her royal privileges as well as her income.

Margaret and Townsend were finally reunited on October 12, 1955.

However, three weeks later, a statement drafted in Princess Margaret's name read: 'I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.

'I have been aware that, subject to my renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage.

'But, mindful of the Church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have decided to put these considerations before any others.'

What remained unsaid was that marrying Townsend would have meant Margaret sacrificing her royal status, its privileges and perks. And Townsend could scarcely keep her in the manner to which she had been accustomed. 

The heart-breaking love story was later depicted in hit Netflix show The Crown.

Having returned to Belgium heartbroken after Margaret's decision, he went on to marry a 20-year-old heiress named Marie-Luce Jamagne in 1959 and the couple had two daughters and one son. 

It was noted that the young woman bore a striking resemblance to Princess Margaret.

Their children Isabelle, Marie-Françoise, and Pierre were born in 1961, 1963 and 1964 respectively.

In May 1960 Margaret married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.

The princess and the Earl of Snowden, as Armstrong-Jones became, had children David and Sarah together but divorced in 1978.

In 1978, 23 years after his separation from Margaret, Townsend released his autobiography, Time and Chance, where he expressed his peace with her choice.

He wrote: 'She could have married me only if she had been prepared to give up everything - her position, her prestige, her privy purse.

'I simply hadn't the weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost.'

Townsend and the Princess met again in 1992 for lunch at her apartment in Kensington Palace. This was believed to be their final meeting.

Before marrying his second wife, Townsend embarked on an epic round-the-world trip that saw him travel to places including Hong Kong, Australia, the Congo, South America and Belgium.

His travels were documented in French documentary Passeport pour le Monde and his book Earth My Friend.

He later forged a career as a wine merchant - a trade which his eldest son Giles - who died in 2015 - followed him into.

Giles' brother Hugo, who was born in 1945, has spent time living as a monk and is a trained psychotherapist.

Townsend's daughter Isabelle became a fashion model and actress, whilst Marie-Françoise works for an interior designer and Pierre has spent his career in the humanitarian sector.

After Townsend's death at his home in France at the age of 80 from stomach cancer, the attendance at his funeral demonstrated how respected he was.

As well as friends and family, he was honoured by the presence of the British Ambassador to France, who represented the Queen.

Battle of Britain pilot Air Commodore Sir Archie Windskill represented the Queen Mother.

Princess Margaret was not present but is believed to have sent a private message to Marie-Luce.

Despite her decision, which reportedly caused her a 'deep sadness' on her deathbed, Margaret kept Townsend's letters to her in bundles.

She decreed before her death in 2002 that they must not be read until 2030 - 100 years from her birth.

It means we only have to wait another six years for that deadline to expire to learn the unvarnished truth about one of the greatest ever royal love stories.