Osla Benning

Margaret Osla Benning (23 August 1921 - October 1974) was a Canadian debutante, who worked at Bletchley Park, was Prince Philip's first girlfriend, and later married John Henniker-Major, 8th Baron Henniker.

Osla Benning was born in Montreal, Canada, on 23 August 1921, the daughter of James William Benning, and the goddaughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten. She went to finishing school in Austria, and came out as a debutante in August 1939.

Benning went to stay with her godfather Lord Louis Mountbatten, who mentioned to her friend (and fellow god-daughter) Sarah Baring that Prince Philip (Mountbatten's cousin) 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 her good friend Baring went to build Hurricane fighter planes at a Hawker Siddeley factory close to Slough, and shared a cottage nearby.

A few months latter (by summer 1941), they were both tested on their German language skills, and posted to Hut 4, the naval section, at Bletchley Park, as linguists.

In 1946, she married John Henniker-Major, 8th Baron Henniker, and they had two sons and one daughter:

Benning died in Kensington, London, in October 1974.

...
Wikipedia