Clara Grace Thornton

Clara Grace Thornton (1913–1987) was a British diplomat, an academic, a translator and a code-breaker at Bletchley Park. She ended her career as Secretary of the Women's National Commission, the official advisory body founded in 1969 to ensure that UK Government policy took account of women in matters of public interest.

Early life and education

She was born on 27 June 1913; her father was a jeweller and silversmith and an alderman. Her secondary education was at Kettering High School.

She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1932.

Her obituary in The Times notes "At that time it was the most responsible British diplomatic job of its kind which had ever been undertaken by a woman, and was regarded as the first important step to becoming an ambassador. Thereafter, Grace Thornton's diplomatic career was nothing other than distinguished. and it is to the Diplomatic Service's discredit (and the nation's loss) that she appeared never to have been offered an embassy." This was the official advisory body founded in 1969 to ensure that UK Government policy took account of women in matters of public interest. The Times obituary notes that "Its scope had hitherto been confined to national issues, but its new secretary was keen to widen its horizons." Others were concerned that, as a long-time member of the Diplomatic Service, she was too much of an insider to challenge the Establishment.