Ann Katharine Mitchell facts for kids

Ann Katharine Mitchell (born Williamson; November 19, 1922 – May 11, 2020) was a British code-breaker and psychologist. During World War II, she worked at Bletchley Park to help break secret messages from the German Enigma code machine.

After the war, she became a counsellor who helped married couples. Later, she studied at the University of Edinburgh and wrote several important books. These books were about how divorce affects children. Some of her well-known books include Someone to Turn to: Experiences of Help Before Divorce (1981) and Children in the Middle: Living Through Divorce (1985).

Early Life and Education

Ann Williamson was born in Oxford, England, on November 19, 1922. Her father, Herbert Stansfield Williamson, had worked in India. Her mother, Winifred Lilian Williamson, helped start one of Britain's first family planning clinics.

Ann won a scholarship to Headington School in Oxford, where she studied from 1930 to 1939. Then, she earned a spot to study mathematics at Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford from 1940 to 1943.

At that time, not many women went to Oxford, and even fewer studied maths. There were only five women in her maths class. She noticed that the boys coming to university had learned maths much better in school than the girls. Her headmistress even told her that studying maths was "unladylike." Luckily, her parents allowed her to take her place at Oxford.

Career

Second World War Code-Breaking

After she finished university in September 1943, Ann Mitchell was asked to work at Bletchley Park. This was a top-secret place where British code-breakers worked during the war. Until May 1945, she worked in a building called Hut 6. Her job was to help break the secret codes used by the German Army and Air Force with their Enigma machines.

She was hired as a temporary worker for the government and earned £150 a year. This went up to £200 after her 21st birthday. A big part of her job was to turn "cribs" (small clues from the enemy messages) into "menus." These "menus" were like instructions for the Bombe machines, which were special devices used to break the codes. The Germans changed their code every night at midnight, so Ann and her team had to start cracking the new codes all over again each day.

Stuart Milner-Barry, who was in charge of Hut 6, found it hard to find enough men because of the war. Also, rules at the time stopped men and women from working together on night shifts. So, Ann worked only with other women in Hut 6.

After the war, like everyone else who worked at Bletchley Park, she was told to forget about her work and never talk about it. When the secret was finally revealed years later, she gave many talks and interviews about her important role during the war. Her story is even in a book called The Bletchley Girls: War, Secrecy, Love and Loss: The Women of Bletchley Park Tell Their Story (2015) by historian Tessa Dunlop.

Helping Families and Studying Social Issues

In the 1950s, Ann Mitchell worked as a marriage guidance counsellor. She helped couples with their problems. In the 1970s, she went back to university to study social policy, which is about how society works and how laws affect people. In 1980, she earned a higher degree, a Master of Philosophy, from the University of Edinburgh. In the early 1980s, she worked as a researcher at the university.

Ann Mitchell spent a lot of time studying and writing about marriage breakups and divorce. She especially focused on how children experience their parents separating. Her books include:

• Someone to Turn To: Experiences of Help before Divorce (1981)
• When Parents Split Up (1982)
• Children in the Middle (1985)
• Coping with Separation and Divorce (1986)
• Families (1987)

Her books were translated into many languages. Her work was used as evidence in reports by the Scottish Law Commission, a group that advises on laws in Scotland. In 2014, a top lawyer named Janys Scott said that Ann Mitchell's work had a "profound influence" on family law in Scotland. She called Mitchell's 1985 book Children in the Middle a "seminal work," meaning it was very important and influential in its field.

Researching History

When she was in her seventies, Ann Mitchell researched and wrote about the history of Edinburgh. She published two books: The People of Calton Hill (1993) and No More Corncraiks: Lord Moray's Feuars in Edinburgh's New Town (1998).

Personal Life

Ann married John Angus Macbeth Mitchell, known as Angus, on December 13, 1948. They had four children and lived in Edinburgh. Angus passed away on February 26, 2018. He had been a senior government official. After he retired, both Ann and Angus worked for many years helping others in volunteer groups and at universities. Angus received several awards for his service, including the Companion of the Bath and the Military Cross.

Ann Mitchell passed away on May 11, 2020, at the age of 97, in Edinburgh. She tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before her death during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.

See also

In Spanish: Ann Katharine Mitchell para niños