22 Facts About Timothy Laurence

Timothy James Hamilton Laurence was born on 1 March 1955 in Camberwell, South London, the son of Commander Guy Stewart Laurence, RN, and Barbara Alison Laurence.

Timothy Laurence was educated at The New Beacon Preparatory School and then at Sevenoaks School, Kent, and University College, University of Durham, on a Naval Scholarship, where he received a Bachelor of Science upper 2nd class honours degree in geography.

Timothy Laurence was commissioned a midshipman in the Royal Navy on 1 January 1973 and made an acting sub-lieutenant on 1 January 1975.

Timothy Laurence was promoted to lieutenant 10 months early, on 1 March 1977.

Timothy Laurence took command of the patrol boat HMS Cygnet off Northern Ireland in 1982, as part of the patrols for IRA gun-runners.

Timothy Laurence attended the Royal Australian Navy Tactics Course at HMAS Watson, Sydney, in March 1986 during which he was notified of his first staff appointment as Equerry to the Queen, a post he held from 11 October 1986 until 16 September 1989.

Timothy Laurence was promoted to commander on 31 December 1988.

Between 1992 and 1994, Timothy Laurence served on the naval staff in the Ministry of Defence, London.

In July 1997, Timothy Laurence returned to the Ministry of Defence, first on the Naval Staff and then from June 1998, on promotion to commodore, as a member of the Implementation Team for the 1998 Strategic Defence Review.

From January 1999, Timothy Laurence was Hudson Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, where he wrote a paper on the relationship between humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping.

Timothy Laurence was then posted to the Joint Services Command and Staff College as a commodore, as assistant commandant, effective 15 June 1999.

From 2001 to the spring of 2004, Timothy Laurence was back at the Ministry of Defence, as Director of Navy Resources and Programmes.

Timothy Laurence was promoted to rear admiral on 5 July 2004, and appointed Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff with responsibility for Resources and Plans.

Timothy Laurence became Head of Profession for the British Government's Property Asset Management community in July 2009.

Timothy Laurence retired from the navy in August 2010 and now pursues a portfolio of mainly non-executive and charitable interests, with a particular emphasis on property and regeneration.

Timothy Laurence was on the board of the project management company Capita Symonds until 2014 and is non-executive chairman of the property developers Dorchester Regeneration.

Timothy Laurence is non-executive chairman of Purfleet Centre Regeneration, a newly established company specialising in site reclamation and regeneration.

Timothy Laurence was a senior military adviser to PA Consulting until 2015.

Timothy Laurence was chairman of the English Heritage Trust between April 2015 and December 2022 and until 30 June 2019 was vice chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Timothy Laurence is a trustee of the HMS Victory Preservation Company.

Timothy Laurence met Princess Anne when he served as an equerry to Queen Elizabeth II in 1986, at a time when it was much rumoured that her first marriage to Captain Mark Phillips was breaking down.

Timothy Laurence received no peerage on marriage, but was made a personal aide-de-camp to the Queen in 2008 and invested in June 2011 as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.