Stella Rimington, first female director of MI5, dies aged 90

Stella Rimington, the first female director of MI5 and the first head of the domestic spy agency to be publicly named, has died aged 90.

- Dan Sabbagh

She died on Sunday night "surrounded by her beloved family and dogs and determinedly held on to the life she loved until her last breath", her family said.

Ken McCallum, the current chief of MI5, said Rimington was "the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world" and praised her for breaking "through long-standing barriers".

An accidental spy, recruited in the mid-1960s as a typist when her husband John was posted to India on diplomatic service, Rimington rose through the ranks to become chief of the security service between 1992 and 1996.