George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend PC (28 February 1724 – 14 September 1807), known as the Viscount Townshend from 1764 to 1787, was a British soldier who reached the rank of field marshal.
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Townshend was the son of Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend, and Audrey Ethelreda Harrison. Charles Townshend, the prominent British politician, was his younger brother, and Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, his first cousin.
He served as a brigadier in Quebec, under General James Wolfe; when the latter died, and his
second-in-command (Robert Monckton) was wounded, Townshend
took command of the British forces during the siege of Quebec. He
received Quebec
City's surrender on September 18, 1759. However, he held
General Wolfe in much contempt (drawing Wolfe in caricature he
created Canada's first cartoon), and was harshly criticized upon
his return to Great Britain for that reason (Wolfe was a popular
hero throughout the country). Nonetheless, he was promoted major general on 6 March 1761 and fought at
the Battle of Villinghausen.
In 1762 he took command of a division of the Anglo-Portuguese army
with the local rank of lieutenant-general, against the Spanish invasion of
Portugal.
He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1767–1772. In 1779, Fort Townshend, was begun by Governor Richard Edwards, naming it after Townshend, who was then Master-General of the Ordnance (1772–1782 and 1783–1784) and responsible for the construction of fortifications. The Fort includes the Government House of Newfoundland and Labrador. (See Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, vol. 2, p. 327.) On 2 February 1773 he fought a duel with Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont, badly wounding the Earl with a bullet in the groin.
Townshend was promoted to general in 1782, and elevated to the marquessate in 1787. He became a field marshal on 30 July 1796. A peculiar family tragedy befell him in May of that year: his son, Lord Charles, had just been elected MP for Great Yarmouth, and he took a carriage to London with his brother, Rev. Lord Frederick, the Rector of Stiffkey. During the journey, Lord Frederick inexplicably killed his brother with a pistol shot to the head, and was ultimately adjuged insane.
On 19 December 1751, Townshend had married Charlotte Compton, 15th Baroness Ferrers of Chartley (d. 1770), daughter of James Compton, 5th Earl of Northampton. They had eight children:
He married Anne Montgomery, the daughter of Sir William Montgomery, 1st Baronet on 19 May 1773. They had six children:
   | Biography - George Townshend, 4th Viscount Raynham, 1st Marquess Townshend - long biography |
| | Government House in Fort Townshend in Newfoundland - Government House: Background and Construction |
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