During her lifetime, Princess Margaret (1930-2002) was was engaged to marry no less than three different men.
In 1956, just one year after she made the announcement that she would not be marrying Peter Townsend (1914-1995), Princess Margaret decided it was better to marry "somebody one at least liked" than to spend the rest of her life alone, and she agreed to marry Billy Wallace (1927- 1977).
He was part of the so-called "Margaret Set", friendship group of high society individuals. Night after night, usually in a party of six or eight, Margaret would visit theatres, restaurants, and nightclubs, smoking cigarettes through a long holder between courses and sipping whiskey.
Wallace's father was Captain Euan Wallace, who served in the British government, notably the Minister of Transport in 1939. According to CNN, when his father died in 1941, he left Billy "a large legacy." Once the richest family in the country, as a child Billy had featured in society magazines and picnicked with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. When Margaret extended a stay at Billy's Sussex home in 1951, expectation of an engagement between them escalated during the run up to her 21st birthday at Balmoral.
Margaret was engaged to Billy Wallace, at the age of 26 for a period in 1956 - just a month after she announced the end of her engagement to Peter.
However, Margaret and Billy's relationship hit a snag, and the engagement was never formally announced.
CNN reports, "Convinced that the queen's approval would be given, Wallace went off to the Bahamas and had a brief romance. So confident was he that nothing could prevent the engagement, he told the princess about it on his return. He was astonished when she promptly showed him the door."
In 1959, Peter Townsend, 45, married his second wife, 20 year old Belgian national, Marie-Luce Jamagne.
They had two daughters and one son.
On 6th May 1960, the princess married Lord Snowdon (1930-2017).
In 1965, Billy Wallace married the Hon. Elizabeth Anne Hoyer Millar, daughter of The 1st Baron Inchyra and Anna de Marees van Swinderen (the daughter of Dutch diplomat René de Marees van Swinderen). They had no children. He battled cancer of the jaw and mouth and died on 4 February 1977, three days before his 50th birthday.
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