Stella Rimington, who has died aged 90, was the first head of the Security Service, commonly known as MI5, to be officially identified. She was also the first woman to head the agency, one that had been deeply infused with male culture. Asked what attracted her to MI5, she told me: “Even though there were all of these tweedy guys with pipes, I still thought the essence of the cold war and spies and stuff was fun. You know, going around listening to people’s telephones and opening their mail and stuff.”
Rising to the top of MI5 after heading the agency’s counter-subversion, counter-espionage, and counter-terrorism divisions was an achievement consolidating her reputation as a formidable Whitehall streetfighter, manifested not least by her success in wrenching from the police Special Branch its historical lead role countering Irish Republican terrorism in mainland Britain.
