The Hidden Hand

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.