Anne Asquith

Anne Mary Celestine Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith (; 14 November 1916 – 19 August 1998) was a British code breaker who became the Countess of Oxford and Asquith upon her marriage in 1947 to Julian Asquith, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

Life She was born in Paris in 1916 to Sir Michael Palairet, a career diplomat, and his wife, Lady Mary de Vere Palairet ( Studd; 1895-1977), and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith to which her parents had converted.

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.

She continued her studies in Paris

During World War II, she worked at the code breaking centre of Bletchley Park, exploiting her knowledge of linguistics and codes, divorced 1976; married secondly in 1985 Nathaniel Page, son of Sir John Page. Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith (born 24 August 1952) Lady Clare Perpetua Frances Asquith (born 28 March 1955) The Hon. Sir Dominic Antony Gerard Asquith, KCMG (born 7 February 1957), a former British Ambassador to Iraq, Egypt and Libya.

Lord Oxford inherited the estate of Mells Manor from his mother Katharine Asquith, younger daughter of Sir John Horner, of Mells, and his wife Lady Frances (née Graham).

Lady Oxford died in Frome in 1998. He was succeeded in his peerage titles, which he had held for over eighty years, by their elder son, Raymond, a former British diplomat and elected hereditary member of the House of Lords.