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

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

, the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. She was married to

William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor William Waldorf Astor II, 3rd Viscount Astor (13 August 1907 – 7 March 1966) was an English businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was also a member of the Astor family. Background and education William was the eldest son ...

, from 1945 to 1953.

Early life

Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton was born on 20 January 1920, the daughter of the filmmaker Richard Norton, 6th Baron Grantley, and his wife, Jean Mary (née Kinloch). At the age of 17 her parents sent her to Munich, where she learned fluent German. Sarah recalled often seeing

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and aides at a tea house; she and a friend made funny faces at the group. Despite the "terrible feeling of fear" in the city they were not disturbed, Sarah said, because the Germans knew that they were English and wanted to maintain good British-German relations.

Career

During the war, she worked for ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

'' and the ''

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

'' for a short time, then as a telephonist at an Air Raid Precautions Centre, before building Hurricane fighter planes at a

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in list of aircraft manufacturers, aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers ...

factory close to

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

. She recalled of this time “I hadn’t expected the work there to be quite as hard as it was, but we were fired up with the desire to make aeroplanes”. She shared a cottage with a colleague Osla Benning. They were both god-daughters of

Lord Louis Mountbatten Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was a British statesman, Royal Navy off ...

, who suggested to Sarah that she might "find a nice girl" for his nephew,

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

. Sarah introduced Benning, and she became Prince Philip's first girlfriend. A few months later, Baring and Benning were both tested on their German language skills, and were posted to

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

. They were also billeted together at the White Horse Inn. On a rare day off Baring would catch the express train to London in order to meet with friends at Claridge's. After working at Bletchley Park she was later transferred to the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre.

Later life

In her later years, Baring wrote a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

about her time in pre-war London society and at Bletchley Park,
The Road To Station X
'.

Personal life

VE-Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of German Instrument of Surrender, Germany's unconditional surrender of Wehrmacht, its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official su ...

, she attended a

cocktail party A cocktail party is a party at which cocktails are served. It is sometimes called a cocktail reception. A cocktail party organized for purposes of social or business networking is called a mixer. Some events, such as wedding receptions, are ...

given by her aunt Lady Brownlow, and was introduced to

William Waldorf Astor William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) was an American-English attorney, politician, hotelier, publisher and philanthropist. Astor was a scion of the very wealthy Astor family of New York City. He moved t ...

, eldest son of the 2nd Viscount Astor and his wife,

Nancy Astor Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor was born in Danville, Virginia and rai ...

, the MP. They were engaged after five days, and married a month later on 14 June 1945. She supported his political campaigning. Their son,

William Astor, 4th Viscount Astor William Waldorf Astor III, 4th Viscount Astor (born 27 December 1951) is an English businessman and politician who sits as a Conservative hereditary Lord Temporal in the House of Lords. He is a member of the Astor family, which is known for ...

, was born in 1951. Her son later became the stepfather of

Samantha Cameron Samantha Gwendoline Cameron, Baroness Cameron of Chipping Norton (; born 18 April 1971), is an English businesswoman. Until 2010, she was the creative director of Smythson of Bond Street. She is married to David Cameron, who served as Prime ...

. The couple amicably divorced in 1953, after which she married Lt-Col Thomas Michael Baring, a former

10th Royal Hussars The 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment of the British Army raised in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the World War I, First World War and World War II, Sec ...

officer, polo player, and fine art consultant. The Barings divorced in 1965. She died on 4 February 2013, aged 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baring, Sarah 1920 births 2013 deaths 20th-century British linguists 20th-century English people 20th-century English women 21st-century English memoirists 21st-century English women writers

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woma ...

Bletchley Park women British socialites Daughters of barons

Astor Astor or ASTOR may refer to: Companies * Astor Pictures, a New York-based motion picture releasing company * Astor Radio Corporation, an Australian consumer electronics manufacturer from 1926 onwards, which also owned the Astor Records label * ...

English socialites English women memoirists Bletchley Park people British women in World War II