|
Osla Benning
Margaret Osla, Lady Henniker-Major (née Benning; 23 August 1921 – 29 October 1974) was a Canadian debutante, who worked at Bletchley Park, was Prince Philip's first girlfriend, and later married Sir John Henniker-Major (who became the 8th Baron Henniker after her death). Early lifeOsla Benning was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada,[1] on 23 August 1921,[2] the daughter of Edith Black and James William Benning,[3] and the goddaughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten.[4] She went to finishing school in Austria, and came out as a debutante in August 1939.[5][6] She was featured in Tatler magazine with a photograph caption reporting that she was being presented by Lady Beatty,[7] as by this time her parents were divorced. Benning was described in her youth as having “dark hair, alabaster white skin, an exquisite figure and a gentle loving nature”.[8] Prince Philip Benning went to stay with her godfather Lord Louis Mountbatten, who mentioned to her friend (and fellow goddaughter) Sarah Baring that Prince Philip (Mountbatten's nephew) did not have a girlfriend and Baring acted as matchmaker.[5] Benning and the Prince were both 18 years old when they met.[9] They had a romance,[10] and according to Baring, "It was obvious that he was Osla's boyfriend in a simple, nice way, so to speak. Every time his ship came back, it was Osla he would ring".[5] They exchanged letters while he was posted overseas,[9] and he bought her a bejewelled brooch with a naval cipher.[8] "I do know that he was her first love," says her daughter, Jane Spring. "She never told me about him for years. She just said: 'I fell in love with a naval officer'."[5] They later drifted apart. World War II and Bletchley ParkEarly in the Second World War, Benning was sent to distant relations in Canada, but travelled back to England through Portugal.[7] She and Baring went to build Hurricane fighter planes for the Royal Air Force at a Hawker Siddeley factory,[6] close to Slough, and shared a cottage nearby.[11] A few months later, by summer 1941, they were both tested on their German language skills and posted to Hut 4 at Bletchley Park, the naval section, as linguists.[5][6][11] They were billeted together at the White Horse Inn.[12] At Bletchley, Benning was known as someone with a good sense of humour who liked to play practical jokes.[7] Her Bletchley supervisor Pamela Rose described Benning as "a very pretty girl" who was "tremendous fun", "spoke German" and "had a lot of confidence."[7] She also recalled that Benning and a friend would "catch the milk float from London to Bletchley at the crack of dawn and would do their shift in party dresses".[7] Another story of Benning's time working at Bletchley claims that when Lord Mountbatten visited with senior military men, she exclaimed "Uncle Dickie, what are you doing here?"[9] Kate Quinn’s 2021 novel about Bletchley Park, The Rose Code, features a character named Osla Kendall, who is based heavily on Osla Benning. Personal lifeShe was briefly engaged to Guy Millard, a British diplomat who later became Ambassador to Switzerland, but they did not marry.[13] She married John Patrick Edward Chandos Henniker-Major (later 8th Baron Henniker and Ambassador to Denmark) on 18 December 1946.[14] They had two sons and one daughter:[15]
Her husband was knighted in the 1965 New Years Honours List and succeeded as the 8th Baron Henniker in 1980.[15] DeathBenning died of cancer in Kensington,[2] London, on 29 October 1974,[4] at the age of 53. References
|
||||||||||||
