Stella Rimington (1935–2025)

Stella Rimington, née Whitehouse, was born in South London, England. Her father got a job as chief draughtsman at a steel works in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria during World War II, and the family moved there. In her autobiography, she described living through the Barrow Blitz as a small child, and becoming claustrophobic into adulthood, needing an exit route from any situation. When her father later got a job in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, the family moved to the Midlands, where Stella attended Nottingham High School for Girls. She spent the summer working as an au pair in Paris before enrolling at the University of Edinburgh in 1954 to study English. After completing her degree in 1958, she studied archive administration at the University of Liverpool, before becoming an archivist at the County Record Office in Worcester. In 1963, she married John Rimington and moved to London, where she joined the India Office Library.

In 1965, she accompanied her husband to a posting as First Secretary (Economic) for the British High Commission in New Delhi, India. Two years later, she was asked to assist one of the other First Secretaries at the High Commission with his office work. She agreed, and when she began, discovered that he was the representative in India of the British Security Service (MI5). Gaining her security clearance, Stella Rimington worked in the MI5 office until she and her husband returned to London in 1969, where she decided to apply for a permanent position at MI5.

Between 1969 and 1990, Rimington worked in all three branches of the Security Service: counter-espionage, counter-subversion, and counter-terrorism. In 1990, she was promoted to one of the Service's two Deputy Director General positions, where she oversaw MI5's move to Thames House. In 1991, she was promoted to Director General. She was the first female DG of MI5, and the first DG whose name was publicized. She oversaw a public relations campaign to improve the openness of the Service and increase public transparency. On 16 July 1993, MI5 (with the reluctant approval of the British Government) published a 36-page booklet titled The Security Service, which revealed publicly, for the first time, details of MI5's activities as well as the identity and even photographs of Rimington as Director General. She retired from MI5 in 1996 and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) that year.

Rimington published her autobiography, Open Secret, in 2001. In 2004, her first novel, At Risk, about a female intelligence officer, was published; it became the first in a series of novels. She served as chair of the judges for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.