Margaret Osla Henniker-Major, Lady Henniker-Major (''née'' Benning; 23 August 1921 – 29 October 1974) was a Canadian debutante, who worked 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 followin ...

, was

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

's first girlfriend, and later married John Henniker-Major (later 8th Baron Henniker).

Early life

Osla Benning was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Quebec, Canada, on 23 August 1921,Margaret Osla Henniker-Major England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007.
Family Search. Retrieved 11 October 2017. the daughter of Edith Black and James William Benning, and the goddaughter of

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 ...

. She went to finishing school in Austria, and came out as a debutante in August 1939.

World War II, Prince Philip and Bletchley Park

Benning went to stay with her godfather Lord Mountbatten, who mentioned to her friend (and fellow god-daughter)

Sarah Baring Sarah Kathleen Elinor Baring (''née'' Norton; 20 January 1920 – 4 February 2013) was an English socialite and memoirist, who worked for three years as a Linguistics, linguist at Bletchley Park, the principal centre of Allies of World War II, A ...

that Prince Philip (Mountbatten's nephew) did not have a girlfriend and Baring acted as matchmaker. According to Baring, "It was obvious that he was Osla's boyfriend in a simple, nice way, so to speak". "I do know that he was her first love," says her daughter, Janie Spring. "She never told me about him for years. She just said: 'I fell in love with a naval officer.’" Early in the war, she and Baring went to build Hurricane fighter planes at a Hawker Siddeley factory close to Slough, and shared a cottage nearby. A few months later, by summer 1941, they were both tested on their German language skills and posted to

Hut 4 Hut 4 was a wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park tasked with the translation, interpretation and distribution of '' Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) messages deciphered by Hut 8. The messages were largely ...

, the naval section, as linguists.

Kate Quinn Kate Quinn is an American writer, known for her works of historical fiction. Biography Quinn is a native of Southern California. She is based in San Diego. She graduated from Boston University with a master's degree in classical voice. Quin ...

’s 2021 novel about Bletchley Park, ''The Rose Code,'' features a character named Osla Kendall, who is based heavily on Osla Benning.

Personal life

In 1946 she married John Henniker-Major, 8th Baron Henniker. They had two sons and one daughter: *Mark Ian Philip Chandos Henniker-Major, 9th Baron Henniker (born 29 September 1947), married Lesley Antoinette Foskett *Hon. Charles John Giles Henniker-Major (2 September 1949 – 9 May 2012), married Sally Kemp Newby *Hon. Jane Elizabeth Henniker-Major (born 6 July 1954). Her husband was knighted in the 1965 New Years Honours List and succeeded as the 8th Baron Henniker in 1980.''The Guardian'', 'Lord Henniker obituary' (4 May 2004).

Death

Benning died of cancer in Kensington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, on 29 October 1974, at the age of 53.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benning, Osla 1921 births 1974 deaths Bletchley Park women Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Montreal Debutantes Canadian socialites Wives of knights

Hartismere Hartismere was a hundred of Suffolk, that later gave its name to a poor law union, a rural sanitary district, and the Hartismere Rural District. Listed as ''Hertesmere'' in the Domesday Book, the name of the hundred is derived from "Hart's mere" ...

Henniker Bletchley Park people