Dame Stella Rimington (born 13 May 1935) is a British author and former
Director General of MI5
__NOTOC__
The Director General of the Security Service is the head of the Security Service (commonly known as MI5), the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency. The Director General is assisted by a Deputy Director Gen ...
, a position she held from 1992 to 1996. She was the first female DG of
MI5
MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
, and the first DG whose name was publicised on appointment. In 1993, Rimington became the first DG of MI5 to pose openly for cameras at the launch of a brochure outlining the organisation's activities.
Early life
Rimington was born Stella Whitehouse in
South London
South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...
, England; her family moved from
South Norwood
South Norwood is a district of South London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, Greater London and formerly in the historic county of Surrey. It is located 7.8 miles (12.5 km) south-east of Charing Cross, north of Woodside and ...
to
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
in 1939, due to the danger of living in London during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Her father got a job as chief draughtsman at a steel works in
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
in Cumbria, and the family moved there. She described living through the
Barrow Blitz as a small child, and becoming
claustrophobic into adulthood, needing an exit route from any situation.
[ She was educated at Croslands Convent School after spending some time in ]Wallasey
Wallasey () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county bou ...
. When her father got a job in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, the family moved to the Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
, where Stella attended Nottingham High School for Girls. She spent her last summer of secondary school working as an ''au pair
An au pair (; : au pairs) is a person working for, and living as part of, a homestay, host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family’s responsibility for child care as well as some homemaking, housework, and receive a monetary ...
'' in Paris, before enrolling at the University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
in 1954 to study English. By chance, she met her future husband, John Rimington, whom she had known from Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
.
Completing her degree in 1958, Rimington studied archive administration at the University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
, before beginning work as an archivist
An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...
at the County Record Office in Worcester in 1959. In 1963, she married John Rimington and moved to London, where she successfully applied for a position at the India Office Library.
In 1965, her husband was offered an overseas posting as First Secretary (Economic) for the British High Commission in New Delhi, India, and the couple sailed to India in September.[
]
India and MI5
In 1967, after two years in India, Rimington was asked to assist one of the 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
MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
). Gaining her security clearance, Rimington worked in the MI5 office for nearly two years, 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
Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to com ...
.
Following the 1979 Department of Health and Social Security
The Department of Health and Social Security (commonly known as the DHSS) was a Ministry (government department), ministry of the Her Majesty's Government, British government in existence for twenty years from 1968 until 1988, and was headed b ...
computer operators strike, Rimington became an assistant director of the revived Inter-departmental Group on Subversion in Public Life to identify and limit the actions of subversives in the civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
.
In 1989, she gave evidence in court against the Czechoslovak spy Václav Jelínek (prosecuted under his alias of "Erwin van Haarlem"), using the alias "Miss J". 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
Thames House is an office building in Millbank, London, on the north bank of the River Thames adjacent to Lambeth Bridge. Originally used as offices by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it has served as the headquarters of the United Kingdom's ...
. In December 1991, she made a visit to Moscow to make the first friendly contact between the British intelligence services and their old enemies the KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
. On her return from Russia she was told she had been promoted to Director General.[
]
Director General
In her first months as Director General, Rimington was subject to a determined campaign by the British press to identify her. The ''New Statesman
''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' and ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' had obtained and published covert photographs of her, despite which Rimington oversaw a public relations campaign to improve the openness
Openness is an overarching concept that is characterized by an emphasis on transparency and collaboration. That is, openness refers to "accessibility of knowledge, technology and other resources; the transparency of action; the permeability of or ...
of the Service and increase public transparency. On 16 July 1993, MI5 (with the reluctant approval of the British Government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. ) published a 36-page booklet titled ''The Security Service'', which revealed publicly, for the first time, details of MI5's activities, operations and duties, as well as the identity and even photographs of Rimington as Director General.[
Rimington retired from MI5 in 1996. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB) in the 1996 New Year Honours.
Her role in the service was considered a model for Dame ]Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...
's portrayal of M in the James Bond series starting in ''GoldenEye
''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent James Bond (lit ...
''.
Post-MI5
Rimington's work after leaving MI5 has been as a non-executive director for companies such as Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...
and BG Group
BG Group plc was a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. On 8 April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory an ...
.
Rimington published her memoirs, entitled ''Open Secret'', in 2001. In 2004, her first novel, ''At Risk'', about a female intelligence officer, Liz Carlyle, was published. A series of further novels followed.
In 2004, she continued her interest in archives
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...
, fostered by her early career, through involvement with the Archives Task Force, where she visited a number of archives through the country and contributed to the report for the future strategy of archives in the UK.
In 2005, she spoke out against national ID cards. She also described the US response to the 9/11 attacks as a "huge overreaction". In 2009, Rimington expressed concerns that the Brown administration was not "recognizing that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state." Rimington claimed that MI5 files collected by her predecessors had been destroyed, but without clarifying whether this took place during her appointment as Director General, or as part of her later involvement with the Archives Task Force.
In 2009, Rimington received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Social Science from Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university located in Nottingham, England. Its origins date back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham School of Design, Nottingham Government School of Design, which still opera ...
in recognition of her support for openness about the work of the secret service.
She was chair of the judges for the 2011 Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
. She and her fellow judges were widely criticised for focusing on "readability" rather than literary quality. Rimington responded during her speech at the Booker ceremony with a "diatribe" in which she compared British literary critics to the KGB.
Personal life
In 1963 she married John Rimington, whom she knew from school. In 1984 they separated, with Stella retaining custody of their two daughters. They did not divorce because it "seemed a faff", and in later life reconciled, living together during the Covid lockdown of 2021. Rimington commented "It's a good recipe for marriage, I'd say: split up, live separately, and return to it later".
Bibliography
''At Risk''
Rimington's first novel, ''At Risk'', brings her knowledge of spy operations to the thriller genre. Her heroine is an MI5 intelligence officer, 34-year old Liz Carlyle, whose mission is to hunt down a terrorist cell.
''At Risk'' has received positive reviews with ''The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...
'' saying, "''At Risk'' is breezily told, seldom pompous, and the plot, though every bit as hokey as you'd expect, winds its threads together very entertainingly." The acknowledgements section indicates that it was written with the help of Luke Jennings: "Huge thanks are also due to Luke Jennings whose help with the research and the writing made it all happen." Some attributed the improvement in writing quality from her earlier autobiography to Jennings' involvement.
Autobiography
*
Liz Carlyle Novels
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Manon Tyler Novels
*
* (Due to be published 30 January 2025.The Hidden Hand publisher's website
Retrieved 10 May 2024.)
See also
*Rimington
Rimington is a rural village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. The population of the civil parish was 382 at the 2001 Census, however at the 2011 Census Middop was included with Rimington giving a total of 480. It is e ...
References
External links
ABC.Net.au
Stella Rimington talks about her life and writing spy fiction
BBC.co.uk
1993: Secret Service goes public
TrashOtron.com
Stella Rimington Interview at The Agony Column Podcast with Rick Kleffel on 25 July 2008
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rimington, Stella
1935 births
Living people
20th-century British women writers
20th-century English novelists
21st-century British women writers
21st-century English novelists
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
British women autobiographers
Dames Commander of the Order of the Bath
Directors General of MI5
English archivists
English autobiographers
English spy fiction writers
People educated at Nottingham Girls' High School
People from Barrow-in-Furness