The first woman to head a United Kingdom intelligence agency, Rimington was the inspiration for Judi Dench’s portrayal of MI6 chief M in seven James Bond films.
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.
"It did not matter that I had a degree, that I had already worked for several years in the public service, at a higher grade than it was offering, or that I was 34 years old," she wrote in her memoir.
"The policy was that men were recruited."
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.
Her tenure saw the secretive organisation become slightly more open, softening its post-Cold War image.
"We are, of course, obliged to keep information secret in order to be effective, this is not to say that we should necessarily be a wholly secret organisation," she said in a publicly broadcast 1994 lecture.
Foreshadowing her later literary career, Rimington opened that same speech with a nod to the British spy novel tradition and the fascination with the security services it had inspired among the public.
"It is exciting stuff and has led to the creation of many myths — and some lurid speculation — about our work. I must admit that it is with some hesitation that I set out tonight to shed some daylight," she said.
"I have a sneaking feeling that the fiction may turn out to be more fun than the reality."
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 2.
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.
All told she wrote 12 spy novels, the most recent of which was The Hidden Hand.
Rimington and her husband John separated in the 1980s, but moved back in together during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
"It’s a good recipe for marriage, I’d say," she said. "Split up, live separately, and return to it later."
Stella Rimington died on August 3 aged 90. — Agencies.
