Lady Jean Graham Sibylle Violet Fforde (née Graham; 11 November 1920 – 13 October 2017) was a British aristocrat and Arran landowner, who worked as a codebreaker at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

. She is known for auctioning off 1000 acres of Arran farmland to pay for central heating in her island cottage.

Early life

She was the daughter of The 6th Duke of Montrose and his wife,

Lady The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inform ...

Mary Louise Douglas-Hamilton. She was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and spent much of her childhood at Castle Buchanan on

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Ce ...

. In the summer she would spend a lot of time with the royalty of

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, including

Prince Rainier III of Monaco Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Monarchy of Monaco, Prince of Monaco from 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Monaco, Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him ...

, husband of

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. Kelly ...

and Princess Antoinette. She described the times they spent together as being great fun, and they spent their days playing and eating cookies. Lady Jean Fforde enjoyed balls and parties, and she came out as a

debutante A debutante, also spelled débutante, ( ; from french: débutante , "female beginner") or deb is a young woman of aristocratic or upper-class family background who has reached maturity and, as a new adult, is presented to society at a formal " ...

in 1939 where she was presented to

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

Career

Her father, who was The 6th Duke of Montrose, spoke to the then

Lord Louis Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of Germa ...

(who later became The 1st

Earl Mountbatten of Burma Earl Mountbatten of Burma is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 28 October 1947 for Rear Admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma. The letters patent creating the title specified the following r ...

), which led to her getting a job as a "temporary assistant" at the government code and cypher school called

. Whilst working here she joined more than 8000 women in their mission to break German codes to help end the war. Thanks to her and all the other workers, this resulted in ending the war two years early. Fforde also authored a memoir called ''Feet on the Ground: From Castle to Catastrophe''. In this book she wrote about her personal experiences, travels and adventures. She also described her experience at

as a "rather dull chapter in an otherwise colourful life" and she goes on to say that "it was excessively boring. It was not as glamorous as subsequent books and films have made it appear". Fforde described

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...

, the mathematical genius who worked at Bletchley Park, as a “very nice man, who should have had public recognition. He was a lovely man, an accessible man. Sweet, handsome, shabby, nail-bitten, sometimes halting in speech and awkward in manner". Fforde worked under

Hut 8 Hut 8 was a section in the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park (the British World War II codebreaking station, located in Buckinghamshire) tasked with solving German naval (Kriegsmarine) Enigma messages. The section was l ...

of Bletchley Park. She described her time there as "dull" and said that the few men working there were unpleasant, and the food inedible.

Personal life

In 1947, the then

Jean Graham married

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

John Fforde, who she later divorced in 1957. They had a son together called Charles Fforde. They spent a lot of time travelling, and they lived in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

and

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fforde, Jean 1920 births 2017 deaths British debutantes Daughters of British dukes Deputy Lieutenants of Ayrshire and Arran Nobility from Edinburgh Bletchley Park women