Kate Middleton Grandma was a WWII Codebreaker

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How inspiring is this?

It’s always fascinating learning about your family history whoever you are, but if you’re the Duchess of Cambridge, we can imagine marrying into a Royal family comes with a pretty extensive family tree to get through.

Royal family aside, it turns out that Kate Middleton has quite the inspiring and interesting family herself (not that it’s a family-accomplishments competition or anything), revealing that her grandmother was as a WWII codebreaker.

Kate Middleton’s grandma worked in Bletchley Park, Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cipher School headquarters, where mathematician Alan Turing developed the Enigma machine, along with her twin sister in the ultimate code-cracking double act.

This information comes from Duchess Kate’s foreward in the debut puzzle book from the U.K.'s Signals Intelligence and Cyber Security agency, GCHQ, Time reports.

‘I have always been immensely proud of my grandmother, Valerie Glassborow, who worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War,’ Duchess Kate wrote.

‘She and her twin sister, Mary, served with thousands of other young women as part of the great Allied effort to break enemy codes,’ Middleton wrote. ‘They hardly ever talked about their wartime service, but we now know just how important the men and women of Bletchley Park were, as they tackled some of the hardest problems facing the country.’

The new puzzle book is a part of Heads Together, Duchess Kate and Prince William's campaign for mental health.

‘William, Harry, and I are very grateful that this book is supporting our Heads Together Campaign,’ Kate continued in the foreword.

‘I hope it will not only amuse and challenge readers, but help to promote an open discussion of mental health problems, which can affect anyone, regardless of age or background. Together, we are aiming to change the national conversation around mental health from stigma and fear to openness and understanding.’

Holly Rains is the digital editor of Marie Claire UK. She has over 10 years journalism experience, working as an editor and writer, specialising in digital media, content strategy and dog breeds. Prior to Marie Claire, she has held senior staff positions at ELLE UK, Grazia and Company magazine.

Holly is a frequent speaker, panelist and interviewer on a range of subjects including media trends, careers and entertainment. From working with Reuters to provide global red carpet coverage for events like the BAFTAs, to discussing fashion and beauty trends on network TV, she was also the host of the Marie Claire series ‘Holly’s First Dates’, where she regularly interviewed a mix of inspiring woman and A-list celebrities (including Jack Black, Dakota Fanning and Renée Zellweger) - a series which garnered half a million views in its first two months. And was approved by The Rock.

Her love of office-based meetings means that the days of discovering the melting point of Cadbury's Flakes are long gone, but when she isn't dreaming of scheduling in meetings, she likes to think about social media, and how best to avoid it whilst still retaining the title of 'digital' editor. She also likes learning about emerging technology, Influencers and how to become a Financially Responsible Adult.

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