Constance Babington Smith

Constance Babington Smith MBE Legion of Merit FRSL (15 October 1912 – 31 July 2000) was a journalist and writer, but is probably best known for her wartime work in imagery intelligence.

Babington Smith was the daughter of the senior civil servant Sir Henry Babington Smith, a scion of the Babington family. Her mother, born Lady Elizabeth Bruce, was the daughter of the 9th Earl of Elgin, making Constance a granddaughter of a Viceroy of India and a great-great-granddaughter of the man who bought the Elgin Marbles. Constance came from a large family and was the seventh of nine children. Her father died in 1923, when she was ten. By then, her eldest brothers were already adults, whilst her youngest sister was just two years old.

She was educated at home at the family home 'Chinthurst', in Wonersh in Surrey.

She finished her education in France and moved to London in adult life.

A trained milliner, she worked for the milliner Aage Thaarup before the war and also Vogue magazine in London, before venturing into journalism, with The Aeroplane magazine.

Her knowledge of aircraft took her into the WAAF in the Second World War. She served with the Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) at RAF Medmenham, reaching the rank of Flight Officer. Serving alongside was her brother, Bernard Babington Smith (1905-1993), who was also a photo interpreter (PI) at Medmenham. Another fellow PI present at Medmenham was Winston Churchill's daughter, Sarah Oliver.

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