Richard ParrA public thanksgiving service for the life of the 7th Marquess Townshend of Raynham is to be held in Norwich Cathedral next month .The service, at which the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, will be present, is open to the public and starts at 12 noon on June 25.Richard Parr

A public thanksgiving service for the life of the 7th Marquess Townshend of Raynham is to be held in Norwich Cathedral next month .

The service, at which the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, will be present, is open to the public and starts at 12 noon on June 25. A private funeral has already taken place.

Lord Townshend died on April 23 in a London nursing home, just three weeks before his 94th birthday.

He was well-known as a landowner on the Raynham estate, industrialist and the founding chairman of Anglia Television.

For almost 30 years he headed Anglia Television and with fellow Norfolk landowner, the late Lord Aubrey Buxton, earned the television station an international reputation for programme making.

Under his direction, the family estate at Raynham, near Fakenham, has been transformed over the past 40 years into a highly efficient arable enterprise of around 6,000 acres.

Lord Townshend, at the age of 88, married his third wife, Philippa Swire, in 2004, who is the Dowager Marchioness. He had five children.

He is succeeded by his son, Charles, Viscount Raynham, who is now the 8th Marquess Townshend.