Stella Rimington

Stella Rimington was educated at Nottingham Girls' High School and Edinburgh University where she took an MA in English Language and Literature. She went on to gain a Postgraduate Diploma in the Administration of Archives and The Study of Records at Liverpool University. She worked as an archivist in the Worcestershire County Archives and the India Office Library in London and in 1965 accompanied her husband on a diplomatic posting to the British High Commission in New Delhi. There, she was recruited as a part-time clerk typist by the MI5 office in the High Commission. Returning to the UK in 1969, she joined MI5 full-time, beginning a career which lasted until her retirement from the Service in 1996. During her career she became Director of each of the operational branches of the Service, counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism, and then Deputy Director General in 1991. On her appointment as Director General in 1992, she became the first female to hold the post and the first Head of one of Britain’s Intelligence Services to be publicly named, beginning a new era of openness for UK Intelligence.

Stella was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1996 New Year's Honours and she holds honorary degrees from several universities. Amongst other appointments since her retirement from MI5, she has been a non executive director of Marks & Spencer plc and BG Group plc, Chairman of the Institute of Cancer Research, a Trustee of the Royal Marsden Hospital and the charity Refuge, and a school governor.

In 2001, Dame Stella published her autobiography, Open Secret and she has since published ten novels featuring the MI5 officer Liz Carlyle.  The Devil's Bargain, published in 2022, introduces a new heroine Manon Tyler, a young CIA officer.

Dame Stella is survived by two daughters and five grandchildren.