[7][8] By the late Georgian era, the Middleton family were established in the West Riding of Yorkshire as cultural and civic figures, particularly in the legal profession.

[26] The couple's children are: Catherine Elizabeth, Princess of Wales, socialite and columnist Philippa Charlotte Matthews and businessman James William Middleton.

[87] Described by Tina Brown as being at the "top level of the legal profession in Leeds",[88] Middleton & Co. existed for over 150 years, closing in 1985.

Middleton wrote that he was "somewhat in awe" of his unmarried cousins who shared a love of animal husbandry with their friend Princess Mary.

[100] In May 1942, he was posted to No 37 Service Flying School in Calgary, Canada where he spent two-and-a-half years as an instructor, training Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster pilots.

[101] After joining the reservist 605 Squadron at Manston, near Ramsgate in Kent, in August 1944, Middleton flew a de Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber, nudging the wings of unmanned German V1 flying aircraft to divert them from hitting London.

After the war, Flew with Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, before moving to British European Airways as a pilot, but remained in the reconstituted RAFVR, receiving a reserve commission as a flying officer on 12 August 1949.

[15][112][113][114] Her colleague and friend, Lady Body (née Marion Graham), recalled in 2014 that she had shared a "rather special moment" with Valerie: "Our superior officer, Commander Williams, came into the room smiling and he said, 'Well done, girls.

[127][128][129] Members of the Middleton family were politically active - "staunch Conservatives" (Tories)[130] and adhered to High Church Anglicanism.

Her father, Francis Martineau Lupton, was a landowner[137] and lead magistrate who dealt with probate matters for the Leeds and West Riding Court.

Doris Kitson, daughter of her second cousin, Florence, Baroness Airedale (née von Schunck), and attended society balls at her home, Gledhow Hall.

During the First World War, the house was converted into a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital run by the Red Cross and the newly married Olive worked there as a nurse with Doris, a fellow Old Roedeanian.

[142][143] Catherine, Princess of Wales visited London's Imperial War Museum in 2018 to read records stating that her great-grandmother was "in residence"—on and off—as a VAD nurse at Gledhow Hall from May 1915 to April 1917.

[144][145] Olive Middleton supported the Leeds branch of the Association for the Care and Protection of Friendless Girls which her grandmother Frances Lupton (née Greenhow) had helped establish in 1885.

[146][147] Also reportedly supporting the association was another of Frances's granddaughters, Elinor,[148] as well as Baroness von Schunck (née Kate Lupton)[147] and her daughter, the Hon.

Mrs Albert Kitson (née Florence von Schunck, later Baroness Airedale), the respective niece and great-niece of Frances.

In April 1917, George V "commanded" that a letter be written to the brothers' father in which the King recognised the exceptional loss of "your gallant" sons.

[145][151][152] Olive and her family were reportedly invited in 1905 to the "fashionable wedding" at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street of her second cousin Alan Cecil Lupton to Mary, sister of Sir Merrick Burrell, 7th Baronet at which another of Olive's second cousins, Norman Darnton Lupton (1875–1953), acted as best man and his sister Agnes as bridesmaid.

[155] The Lupton family are described in the Leeds City Council's photographic archive as "woollen manufacturers and landed gentry—a political and business dynasty"; Olive's first cousin-once-removed, Baroness von Schunck (née Kate Lupton),[156] alongside her daughter and son-in-law, Baron and Baroness Airedale, had been invited to the coronation of King George V in 1911.

[157][158][159] In 1891, Olive Middleton's grandmother Frances employed seven indoor servants, including a lady's maid at Beechwood; the estate's cottages housed gardeners, grooms, coachmen and a farm bailiff.

[162][163] Whereas the family eventually sub-divided Newton Park,[164] the Beechwood estate was entailed to Olive's eldest brother, Francis Ashford Lupton, who lacked a male heir.

As Tom was only nine at the time of his father's death, his spinster aunts, Elinor and Elizabeth—"The Misses Lupton"—were granted a life interest in Beechwood and continued to live there, occasionally opening their gardens to the public.

[176] In 1942, Major Middleton was a member of the Trustees of the Patronage of Leeds Vicarage alongside Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood.

[186][187][188][189] In 2022, it was revealed that the duchess' great-great-aunt Gertrude Middleton was also a VAD nurse at Gledhow Hall, the home of Baroness Airedale, Olive's second cousin.

[190] In 1903, Gertrude's twin sister Caroline Middleton (1876-1961) published an essay in the Leeds Girls' High School annals about working with Helen Gladstone at London's Women's University settlement where "people like ourselves...live amongst the poor and get to know them in order that they may be able to help them in the best and wisest way.

Dr. Smyth, vicar of St Chad's Church where his son Arthur Middleton had also been a "regular attender" and had his own funeral in 1907.

[202] Many generations of Catherine's family have participated in the art of photography, including her great-great grandfather solicitor John Middleton, her great-grandfather solicitor Noël Middleton, his brother William and their sister Margaret, who was due to study at the University of Oxford but drowned in April 1900 whilst taking photographs of Filey Brigg.