Trailblazing MI5 chief and author Stella Rimington passes away at 90

Stella Rimington, Britain’s first female MI5 director and the real-life inspiration for James Bond’s M, has passed away at 90. She broke barriers and later became a successful author.

London: Stella Rimington, the first female chief of Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency and later a successful thriller writer, has died, her family said on Monday. She was 90.

The first woman to head a UK intelligence agency, Rimington was the inspiration for Judi Dench’s portrayal of MI6 chief M in seven James Bond films.

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Her family said in a statement that Rimington died on Sunday, “surrounded by her beloved family and dogs and determinedly held on to the life she loved until her last breath.”

MI5’s current director-general, Ken McCallum, said that “as the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world, Dame Stella broke through long-standing barriers and was a visible example of the importance of diversity in leadership.”

Born in London in 1935, Rimington studied English at Edinburgh University and later worked as an archivist. She was living in India with her diplomat husband in the mid-1960s when she was recruited by MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, as a part-time clerk and typist in its New Delhi office.

She joined the agency full-time after moving back to London in 1969 and rose through the ranks, overcoming rules that kept the most prestigious roles, such as recruiting and running agents, for men only.

She worked in each of MI5’s operational branches — counterespionage, counterterrorism and counter-subversion — at a time when MI5’s work included sniffing out Soviet spies, infiltrating Northern Ireland militant groups and, controversially, spying on leftists, trade union leaders and other alleged subversives.

Rimington acknowledged in 2001 that the organisation “may have been a bit over-enthusiastic” in some of its snooping on domestic targets during the Cold War.

Rimington was appointed MI5 director-general in 1992, the first head of the organisation to be named in public, and her tenure saw the secretive organisation become slightly more open.

Dench’s first appearance as M — a role formerly played by men — was in GoldenEye in 1995. The film’s producers said the casting was inspired by Rimington’s appointment.

After stepping down in 1996, Rimington was made a dame — the female equivalent of a knight — by Queen Elizabeth II.

Rimington later published a memoir, Open Secret — to the displeasure of the government — and a series of spy thrillers featuring fictional MI5 officer Liz Carlyle.

The Devil’s Bargain, published in 2022, introduced a new heroine, CIA officer Manon Tyler.

Other women followed her to top intelligence jobs. Eliza Manningham-Buller led MI5 between 2002 and 2007. Anne Keast-Butler became head of electronic and cyber-intelligence agency GCHQ in 2023. Blaise Metreweli was named in June as the first female head of the overseas intelligence agency, MI6.

Rimington and her husband, John Rimington, separated in the 1980s, but moved back in together during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

“It is a good recipe for marriage, I would say,” she said. “Split up, live separately, and return to it later.”

She is survived by her husband, two daughters and five grandchildren.