William Richard Townsend (died 1914) was a British lawyer who served with the Colonial Service in the Gambia and Sierra Leone in the early 20th century.
Townsend was appointed as Attorney General of the Gambia on 1 May 1902, the first in the colony's history.
[1] He was appointed to the Executive and Legislative Councils of the Gambia on 26 September 1902.
[2] He was appointed as Chief Magistrate of the Gambia on 18 January 1907, and as a judge in Sierra Leone on 22 October 1908.
She was the daughter of Richard Horatio Townshend and Frances Maria Maunsell.