# Anne Asquith

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{{Short description|British code breaker (1916-1998)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [The Right Honourable](/source/The_Right_Honourable)
| name             = The Countess of Oxford and Asquith
| image            = 
| image_size       = 
| caption          = 
| birth_name       = Anne Mary Celestine Palairet
| birth_date       = 14 November 1916
| birth_place      = [Paris](/source/Paris), France
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=y|1998|8|19|1916|11|14}}
| death_place      = [Frome](/source/Frome), [Somerset](/source/Somerset), England
| death_cause      = 
| other_names      = 
| known_for        = [Code breaking](/source/Cryptanalysis)
| education        = [St Anne's College, Oxford](/source/St_Anne's_College%2C_Oxford)
| employer         = 
| occupation       = 
| party            = 
| boards           = 
| father           = [Michael Palairet](/source/Michael_Palairet)
| spouse           = {{marriage|[Julian Asquith](/source/Julian_Asquith%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith)|1947}}
| partner          = 
| children         = 5
| parents          = 
| relatives        = 
| signature        = 
| website          = 
| footnotes        = 
}}

'''Anne Mary Celestine Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith''' ({{nee|'''Palairet'''}}; 14 November 1916 – 19 August 1998) was a British [code breaker](/source/Cryptanalysis) who became the Countess of Oxford and Asquith upon her marriage in 1947 to [Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith](/source/Julian_Asquith%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith).

==Life==
She was born in [Paris](/source/Paris) in 1916 to Sir [Michael Palairet](/source/Michael_Palairet), a career diplomat,<ref name=dad>Neville, P. (23 September 2004). Palairet, Sir (Charles) Michael (1882–1956), diplomatist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 8 December 2017, see [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35365 link]</ref> and his wife, Lady Mary de Vere Palairet ({{nee}} Studd; 1895-1977), and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith to which her parents had converted.{{cn|date=October 2022}}

She was raised in Japan, China and Bucharest, where she would help her father by decoding messages that had been sent to him. In Japan, she survived an earthquake when she was six and later, her family was present during the Chinese civil war. She had an affection for Bucharest, where she took the baccalaureate and learnt French.{{cn|date=October 2022}}

She continued her studies in Paris<ref name=obit/> before studying at [St Anne's College, Oxford](/source/St_Anne's_College%2C_Oxford), although she did not take her finals.<ref name=dad/> At college, she met [Julian Asquith](/source/Julian_Asquith%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith), who was already the [Earl of Oxford and Asquith](/source/Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith). They were to marry years later.<ref name=obit>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-the-countess-of-oxford-and-asquith-1196531.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-the-countess-of-oxford-and-asquith-1196531.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Obituary: The Countess of Oxford and Asquith|date=7 September 1998|work=The Independent|access-date=8 December 2017|language=en-GB}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

During [World War II](/source/World_War_II), she worked at the code breaking centre of [Bletchley Park](/source/Bletchley_Park), exploiting her knowledge of linguistics and codes,<ref name=obit/> before joining the [WAAF](/source/Women's_Auxiliary_Air_Force). They sent her to [Palestine](/source/Mandatory_Palestine) in 1945, where she should have been off-duty at the [King David Hotel](/source/King_David_Hotel) when [it was bombed](/source/King_David_Hotel_bombing) in 1946, but serendipity saw her exchange shifts, and she was working elsewhere when the bomb went off.<ref name=dad/>

==Marriage and children==
She married [Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith](/source/Julian_Asquith%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith), at the [Brompton Oratory](/source/Brompton_Oratory) in 1947. Her husband took diplomatic postings in Libya, Zanzibar, and [St Lucia](/source/St_Lucia), and he was the governor in the Seychelles.<ref name=dad/> At that time, one could not fly easily to these islands, but ships occasionally visited them.<ref name=obit/>

Lord and Lady Oxford had five children – two sons, both diplomats, and three daughters (the middle one married to another diplomat):

* Lady (Mary) Annunziata Asquith (born 28 July 1948), partner of [Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield](/source/Patrick_Anson%2C_5th_Earl_of_Lichfield).
* Lady Katharine Rose Celestine Asquith (born 1 October 1949), in 1970 married [Adam Ridley](/source/Adam_Ridley),<ref>[L. G. Pine](/source/L._G._Pine), ''The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms'' (London: Heraldry Today, 1972), pp. 16, 276</ref>  divorced 1976;<ref>Charles V Kidd, David Williamson, eds., ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 1990, {{ISBN|0312046405}}), p. 950</ref> married secondly in 1985 Nathaniel Page, son of [Sir John Page](/source/John_Page_(MP_for_Harrow_West)).<ref>''[Burke's Peerage](/source/Burke's_Peerage)'', volume 2 (2003), p. 3,036</ref>  
* [Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith](/source/Raymond_Asquith%2C_3rd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith) (born 24 August 1952)
* Lady Clare Perpetua Frances Asquith (born 28 March 1955)
* [The Hon.](/source/The_Honourable) Sir [Dominic Antony Gerard Asquith](/source/Dominic_Asquith), [KCMG](/source/Order_of_St_Michael_and_St_George) (born 7 February 1957), a former British Ambassador to Iraq, Egypt and Libya.

Lord Oxford inherited the estate of [Mells Manor](/source/Mells_Manor) from his mother [Katharine Asquith](/source/Katharine_Asquith), younger daughter of [Sir John Horner, of Mells](/source/List_of_High_Sheriffs_of_Somerset), and his wife [Lady Frances (née Graham)](/source/Frances_Horner).

Lady Oxford died in [Frome](/source/Frome) in 1998.<ref name=obit/> Lord Oxford died, aged 94, on 16 January 2011.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8265164/The-Earl-of-Oxford-and-Asquith.html |title=Obituaries – The Earl of Oxford and Asquith |work=[The Daily Telegraph](/source/The_Daily_Telegraph) |date=17 January 2011}}</ref> He was succeeded in his peerage titles, which he had held for over eighty years, by their elder son, [Raymond](/source/Raymond_Asquith%2C_3rd_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Asquith), a former British diplomat and elected hereditary member of the [House of Lords](/source/House_of_Lords).

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asquith, Anne}}
Category:1916 births
Category:1998 deaths
Oxford and Asquith
Category:Bletchley Park women
Category:British expatriates in France
Category:British expatriates in China
Category:British expatriates in Japan
Category:British expatriates in Romania
Category:British Roman Catholics
Category:Wives of knights
Category:Bletchley Park people
Category:Asquith family

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Anne Asquith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Asquith) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Asquith?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.