Everything about Timothy Laurence totally explained
Vice Admiral Timothy James Hamilton Laurence CB,
MVO,
ADC(P) (born
1 March 1955) is the second husband of
The Princess Anne, The Princess Royal. Laurence was
Equerry to
The Queen from 1986 to 1989. He was born in
Camberwell, South
London, the son of Guy Stewart Laurence (a salesman for a marine-engine manufacturer) and Barbara Alison Laurence, née Symons.
Education
Laurence was educated firstly at
The New Beacon Preparatory School and then at
Sevenoaks School,
Kent, and the
University of Durham on a Naval Scholarship, where he received a
BSc upper 2nd class
honours degree in
geography. At university, he edited the student newspaper,
Palatinate, and was captain of his college
cricket team. He was made a
midshipman 1 January 1973, and acting
sub-lieutenant 1 January 1975.
Naval career
Upon leaving Durham he completed his initial training at the
Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, and was posted to
HMS Aurora, a
Plymouth-based
frigate. He was promoted to
lieutenant 10 months early, on
1 March 1977.
In 1978 he was attached to the training establishment
HMS Vernon and in the next year served on the
minesweeper HMS Pollington.
Laurence served briefly as Navigating Officer of the Royal Yacht
HMY Britannia, and 1980 to 1982 in the same role on the destroyer
HMS Sheffield. He took command of the patrol boat
HMS Cygnet off
Northern Ireland in 1982, as part of the patrols for
IRA gun-runners.
After attending
HMS Dryad for a Principal Warfare Officer course, Laurence was promoted to
lieutenant-commander (
1 March 1985), and posted to the frigate
HMS Alacrity. In April 1986 he was appointed to his first staff post, as
Equerry to
Her Majesty The Queen. He was promoted to
commander on
31 December 1988.
In October 1989 he was posted to the new frigate
HMS Boxer, in command. He took over as Commanding Officer
30 January 1990, at the young age of only 34 years.
In 1992 to 1994 Laurence was with the naval staff in the
Ministry of Defence,
London. On
16 May 1994 Laurence was appointed the first
Military Assistant to the
Secretary of State for Defence (
Malcolm Rifkind), to provide military advice in his private office.
Laurence was promoted to
captain 30 June 1995, and until 1996 was in command of the frigate
HMS Cumberland. In May 1996 the ship was back from the
Adriatic, where HMS
Cumberland served in the
NATO-led
IFOR. On
27 August 1996 Laurence was appointed in command of the frigate
HMS Montrose, and as captain of Plymouth-based F6, a
squadron of five frigates. Until October 1996 the ship was in the
South Atlantic, on
Falkland Islands patrol.
From
15 July 1997 Laurence was again in the Ministry of Defence,
London, as part of the 1998
Strategic Defence Review implementation team.
Later career
In 1998 and 1999 Laurence was
Hudson Visiting Fellow,
St Antony's College,
University of Oxford. He was then posted to the
Joint Services Command and Staff College as a
Commodore, as Assistant Commandant (Navy), effective
15 June 1999.
From 2001 to the spring of 2004 he was back at the Ministry of Defence, as Director of Navy Resources and Programmes.
Laurence was promoted to
Rear-Admiral, and made
Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Resources and Plans) July 2004. On 30 April 2007 he was promoted to
Vice-Admiral, and made
Chief Executive of Defence Estates.
Marriage
He met Princess Anne when he served as an
Equerry to
The Queen, when her first marriage to
Captain Mark Phillips broke down. Commander Laurence and Anne were married in December 1992 in a
Church of Scotland ceremony at
Crathie Parish Church,
Ballater, near
Balmoral, the Church of Scotland permitting the remarriage of divorced people.
He received no
peerage on their marriage. Princess Anne retained her country estate,
Gatcombe Park in
Gloucestershire, after her divorce, but when they first married she and Laurence leased as their
London residence a flat in the
Dolphin Square complex in
Westminster. This experiment was later ended and they returned to apartments in
Buckingham Palace.
Honours
British honours
Commonwealth Realms honours
CSM: Companion of the Order of the Star of Melanesia, 2005Further Information
Get more info on 'Timothy Laurence'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://timothy_laurence.totallyexplained.com">Timothy Laurence Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
