Arthur Cecil Townsend was born in Islington, London, England on 12 June 1896. From 1919 to 1923 he studied in the Department of Civic Design, School of Architecture, University of Liverpool in Liverpool on an ex-service grant and was awarded a Dip.Arch. and Cert. Civic Design in 1923.
In the early 1920s he was in partnership (or collaborated) with Henry Claude Killender (1892-1976). They submitted a design for a bungalow in the Daily Mail Architects Competition for Labour-Saving Bungalows in 1922. In c.1925, with fellow graduate of Liverpool University School of Architecture, Chalmers Henry Hutton (1899-1981), Townsend formed the architectural partnership Townsend & Hutton. The practice had an office at had an office as 37 Moorfields, Liverpool, in 1926.
A photograph of the ingle fireplace in the hall of 'Campden' in Green Lane, Calderstones, Liverpool, designed by Townsend & Hutton is illustrated in 'Decorative Art' 1927 (p.58).
Townsend was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1922 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1934. The Townsend & Hutton partnership appears to have been dissolved by the late 1920s.
From 1929 Townsend taught in the Department of Architecture at Portsmouth Municipal School of Art until at least 1939. He died in Portsmouth in 1993
Sharples, Joseph, Powers, Alan and Shippobottom, Michael. Charles Reilly & the Liverpool School of Architecture 1904-1933. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 25 October 1996 - 2 February 1997. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996 p. 175 [May contain other references to Townsend, unfortunately, the catalogue is not indexed]
Who's Who in Architecture 1926. edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: Architectural Press, 1926