Robert Walter Townson, known as Bertie, was born at Grayrigg, Westmorland in 1864 and baptised there on 31 August. He was the third son of the Revd Robert Townson, Curate of Grayrigg, and his wife Margaret Cowper.

From 1866 to 1882 Bertie's father was Curate of Allithwaite in the parish of Cartmel, Lancashire. In the 1871 census Bertie (6) can be seen at Allithwaite Vicarage with his parents and his six siblings Mary (11), Charles (8), Charlotte (5), Emily (4), John (2), Leonard (1), and Frederick (six months). The children were looked after by a nurse and under-nurse, and the family also had a cook and nursemaid.

At the time of the 1881 census Bertie (16) and his brother John Henry Townson (12) were boarding at Rossall School in Lancashire.

After leaving school, Bertie spent a year at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, and then appears to have gone to America: John Townson states: “One thing that is remembered in the family is that Bertie had to go to America as a young man to extract one of his brothers from some sort of trouble there; which brother it was is not known.” This probably explains why he was matriculated at the relatively late age of 22, on 16 October 1886, at the University of Oxford by St John's College.

Bertie obtained a Third in Theology in Trinity Term 1889, and was ordained Deacon at Chelmsford in December 1889. He then served as Curate of St James, Forest Gate until 1891.

In the 1891 census (where he is recorded by the name of Bertie), he was a visitor at "Aucklands" in Littlehampton, East Preston, the home of the architect/surveyor Charles Poland and his wife Mariann. They had one son, Eustace, who was a curate, and four unmarried daughters: Mariann (35), Agnes Madeleine (30), Beatrice Elizabeth (28), and Gertrude Annie (27). The youngest daughter Gertrude (born in Bloomsbury in 1863/4 and baptised there on 21 April 1864) was to become Townson's wife.

Townson was ordained Priest at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1891, and served as Curate of Warkworth in Northumberland from 1891 to 1893.

On 19 November 1892 at St Mary's Church, Littlehampton, Sussex, Robert Walter Townson of Warkworth married Gertrude Annie Poland of Littlehampton:

Robert and Gertrude Townson had three daughters:

• Dorothy Margaret Townson (born at Bartley Green, Birmingham on 3 January 1894 and baptised by her own father there on 4 March)
• Millicent Mary Joyce Townson, known as Joyce (born in Plymouth on 31 January 1896 and baptised at Sutton on Plym on 13 March)
• Violet Gertrude Marie Stella Townson, known as Stella (born at the Vicarage in St Andrew's Road in Headington on 17 August 1903 and baptised by her own father at St Andrew's Church on 27 September).

Townson served as Curate of Northfield near Birmingham (where his first daughter was born) from November 1893 to 1895 and of Sutton-on-Plym, Plymouth (where his second daughter was born) from 1895. He was Dean, Kimbolton from December 1897, and then served as chaplain to the Sisters of Bethany in Bournemouth in 1898.

In 1899 the Revd Scott-Tucker of St Andrew's Church in Headington was involved in a lengthy court case, and it appears that Townson, who was the brother of Scott-Tucker's curate, took over some duties at the church: for example he officiated at a marriage at the church on 28 May 1899.

On 23 October 1899 the following announcement appeared in The Times:

The Rev. Robert Walter Townson has been instituted to the vicarage of Headington, Oxon. — patron, Mrs. M. A. C. Rawlinson, of Eltham, Kent.

(The patron of St Andrew's Church from 1879 to 1927, Martha Ann Cubbidge Rawlinson, née Crundwell, had lived at Headington Lodge prior to her wedding at that church in 1876 to the printer Ralph Rawlinson.)

Townson moved with his family into Headington Vicarage (right) which was then in St Andrew's House on the corner of St Andrew's Road and Osler Road.

The Revd Townson was immediately appointed by Headington Parish Council to fill the vacancy on the Burial Board caused by the resignation of the Revd Scott-Tucker.

Townson's predecessor at the church, the Revd Scott-Tucker, had co-founded the Headington United Cricket Club and Football Club, and at the cricket club annual dinner held at the Britannia Inn in October 1900, the Revd Townson occupied the chair, proposing the toast to the Queen and presenting the prizes. Jackson's Oxford Journal reported:

Mr. E. SMITH proposed [a toast to] “The Chairman.” They all knew the Vicar to be a man of wide learning and deep religious convictions. He had met with some opposition in the parish, and some of his views had been severely criticised, but he worked perseveringly on in the face of such opposition, and would, no doubt, ultimately convince those who now differed from him that he had their welfare at heart and was working in the interests of the parish — (applause).

The VICAR, in response, said that he was deeply sensible of his inability to satisfactory [sic] fill the chair that evening. — (“No, no”). He felt very deeply what the last speaker had said. He was only too pleased to assist in the affairs of the parish, and would willingly do what he could to help forward such many pursuits as cricket and football, as he thought that the success of the Empire was in a great measure due to the cultivation of such sports. He wished to be the friend of all in the parish. — (applause).

This suggests that his high Anglo-Catholicism was already being criticized in 1900, but that none the less the people of Headington liked him.

Townson (36) can be seen living at Headington vicarage at the time of the 1901 census: he described himself as "Catholic Priest, Anglican Communion". With him were his wife Gertrude Annie (36) and his first two daughters Dorothy Margaret (7) and Joyce (5), as well as his sister-in-law Miss Agnes Wareham Poland. The family had a cook and a housemaid. His third daughter was born in this house in 1903.

On 22 February 1904 the following article appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post:

ALLEGED LEGAL RITUALISTIC PRACTICES
OBJECTIONS IN THE OXFORD DIOCESE

Much commotion has been caused in the parish of Headington, near Oxford, owing to the introduction of a number of pictures of the Virgin, “Stations of the Cross,” and other things, which it is alleged, are illegal, into the parish church. The objectors have laid the matter before the Chancellor of the diocese (Sir William Anson, M.P.) in the form of a petition setting forth details of the various things to which exception is taken, and praying that a faculty may be granted for their removal. The petition is signed by some of the most influential residents. Among the signatories are Sir W. Markby, K.C.I.E., and Professor Vines. Among the things placed in the church alleged to be illegal, and which it is asked should be removed, are a second and additional communion table or altar under the east window of the south aisle of the church, with a super-altar thereon; a picture of the Virgin Mary and crucifix over the additional communion table or altar; a crucifix over the pulpit, a super-altar over the communion table at the east end of the chancel, with a crucifix and scroll bearing the words “Adoremus in aeternum sanctissimum sacramentum”; a picture of the Virgin and Child, pictures commonly called “The Stations of the Cross” (fourteen in number), and three other pictures upon the walls of the church; a vessel for holy water near the belfry; a seat and kneeling stool in the south-west corner of the chancel for the purpose of hearing confession. It is also a subject of complaint that gates have been erected without a faculty or lawful authority at the chancel steps, dividing the chancel from the body of the church, such gates being kept locked except during the time of service. It is pointed out that the parish warden, in consequence of complaints and objections made to him by many parishioners, applied to the Rev. Robert Walter Townson, the vicar of the parish, to remove the articles and chancel gates, but he refused and declined to summon a vestry meeting to consider the question of applying for a faculty for their removal. The vicar has intimated that he will oppose the removal of the things mentioned, and contends that he is supported in his action by a large body of the parishioners.

In 1905 Townson's liturgical practices were cited before the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline. It was said of him that “he raised the churchmanship to unknown levels and alienated most of the congregation in the process”, bringing him into conflict with the Bishop of Oxford, and hastening the creation of the separate parish and church of All Saints, Highfield in 1910, as many of the churchgoers had gone off to the chapel of ease in Perrin Street.

The 1911 census again shows the Townson family in Headington Vicarage. They now had a governess as well as a cook and housemaid, and Gladys Harrison, a cousin aged 17 born in Guildford and described as a student, was living with them.

The detail below from a postcard shows part of the interior of St Andrew's Church in the days of Townson. In this area alone there are at least three images of the Virgin Mary:

The Oxford Chronicle of 9 April 1915 published an article (p. 9) entitled “Headington Church Troubles”, explaining why the Vicar might have to leave because of the reservation of the Holy Sacrament at the church. This may, however, have been a cover-up for the real reason he had to leave not only St Andrew's but also the priesthood later that year, after falling in love with a young woman known as Daisy.

Evelyn Daisy Clarke Wallace (known as Daisy)

Evelyn Daisy Clarke Margaret Wallace, known as Daisy, was born at Aldershot on 25 January 1881 and baptised at St Peter's Church, Farnborough on 5 March. In 1891, when she was ten years old, she was living at a house called St John's in Bishopstoke, Hampshire with her parents Nesbit Willoughby Wallace (51) a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army born in Nova Scotia, and his first wife Mrs Susan Copley Wallace (50), born in Montreal. Four of Daisy's older siblings were at home, the first three born in Canada, and the last in Winchester: Beatrice (20), Edith (18), Ella (14), and Alymer (11). The family had five servants.

On 6 July 1894 Daisy's mother died at St John's, Bishopstoke. Her effects at death came to £187 12s. 9d.

At the time of the 1901 census Daisy was aged 20 and living with her older sister Beatrice (29) at Highfield, Mount View, Bishopstoke, Hampshire. The two unmarried women lived alone with one servant.

Daisy's father Nesbit Willoughby Wallace married his second wife, Agatha Constance Hodgson, at West Kensington on 9 June 1903.

In 1911 Daisy Wallace was still unmarried and had moved on her own to Headington, living on private means. She was then 30 (but gave her age in the census as 27) and was boarding at Rookery Cottage (now 1 Stoke Place, a short distance from the vicarage) in the home of the prosperous Headington builder Charles Morris. According to John Townson, she worked at the SPCK (the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) bookshop, and met Townson through this work.

Townson resigned as Vicar of St Andrew's in 1915. From May 1915 St Andrew's Church had various priests in charge, until Alexander Nenon Armstrong was appointed Vicar in 1916.

“Mr & Mrs Wilson”

It appears that Townson had left his wife and moved to Oaksey in Wiltshire, where he took up his original career of farming again. It seems likely that he lived in a common-law marriage there with Daisy and that they called themselves Mr & Mrs Wilson.

At the time of the 1921 census Daisy Evelyn Clarke Wallace (38) was staying at 43 Barrowgate Road, Chiswick with her father Nesbit Willoughby Wallace (82), who had been widowed a second time, and his stepdaughter Lilian Maud Rowden (45), plus two servants. She gave her occupation, however, as working on the land for W. B. Wilson of Oaksey, Wiltshire, and this was none other than Townson in disguise, as the 1921 census shows Walter Bertram Wilson (52) as a dairy farmer living at Oaksey: he was evidently Townson, as he was born in Westmorland, his maid Beatrice Daisy Wiggins (29) had been born in Headington, and he later changed his surname to Wilson.

The couple could not marry while Townson's legal wife was still alive, but on 30 August 1930 Gertrude Annie Townson died at Beach House Nursing Home, Streatham, Surrey. Her home address at the time of her death was given as 48 Knollys Road, Streatham, Surrey. She was described as the wife of the Reverend Robert Walter Townson, who was her executor. Her effects came to £735 9s. 6d.

Townson was now free, and on 20 October 1930 (less than two months after the death of Gertrude), he officially changed his surname to Wilson. The following notice appeared in the London Gazette, giving the same address in Streatham where Gertrude had died:

I, ROBERT WALTER WILSON, of 48, Knollys-road, Streatham, in the county of Surrey, heretobefore called and known by the name of Robert Walter Townson, of 48, Knolly-road [sic], Streatham, in the county of Surrey, hereby give notice that on the twentieth day of October 1930, I renounced and abandoned the use of my said surname of Townson and assumed in lieu thereof the surname of Wilson; and further that such change of name is evidenced by a deed dated the twentieth day of October, 1930, duly executed by me, and attested and enrolled in the Enrolment Department of the Central Office of the Royal Courts of Justice on the twenty-first day of October, 1930.

On 14 January 1931 at Chiswick, Robert Walter Wilson (formerly Townson) married Evelyn Daisy Clarke Wallace. The marriage was announced thus in the Daily Telegraph two days later, with the groom giving the false forenames “Walter Bernard” (rather than Walter Bertram as in 1921), and the bride just described as Daisy Wallace:

WILSON—WALLACE. On Jan. 14, 1931, at Chiswick, Walter Bernard Wilson, of Oaksey, Wilts, to Daisy, youngest daughter of Colonel Nesbit Willoughby Wallace, C.M.G., D.L., J.P.

Also rather oddly, as Wilson was now his legal surname, the marriage was registered under the names Robert W. Townson and Evelyn D. C. Wallace (Brentford district, Vol. 3a, p. 133).

Daisy's father Nesbit Willoughby Wallace died at Leaholme, 15 Waterden Road on 31 July 1931, and his effects came to £346 2s. 4d.

Robert Walter Wilson, formerly Townson, died at the age of 80 at St Peter's Court, Great Bricett, Suffolk on 19 February 1945. His effects came to £1,714 13s., and his executors were his second wife Evelyn Daisy Clarke Wilson and his daughter Violet Townson (Mrs Saker).

His second wife Mrs Evelyn Daisy Clarke Wilson died at Elm Grove, Somerford Road, Cirencester on 17 February 1976.

Daughters of Robert Walter Townson by his first wife Gertrude

His three daughters were all married in the Alverstoke district of Hampshire, in the following order: :

• His second daughter Millicent Mary Joyce Townson (Joyce) married George E. Middleditch in 1917. At the time of the 1921 census she was living at 48 Knollys Road, Streatham SW16 with George (25), who was a consulting motor engineer and their daughter Joan. Millicent died in Brighton on 30 January 1984.
• His eldest daughter Dorothy Margaret Townson married Christopher P Worsfold in 1921, At the time of the 1921 census Dorothy and her husband Christopher (24), who was a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, were paying a visit to her mother Gertrude and her sister Stella in Alverstoke.
• His youngest daughter Violet Gertrude Maria Stella Townson (Stella) married Harold John Saker in 1922. At the time of the 1939 Register she was living in Windsor with her husband, who was an R.A.F. Wing Commander. She died in Horsham, Sussex on 19 October 1987.