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Stella Rimington

2 of 12 portraits by Boo Beaumont

© Boo Beaumont/ National Portrait Gallery, London

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Stella Rimington

by Boo Beaumont
bromide print, July 1996
10 in. x 6 3/4 in. (253 mm x 173 mm)
Purchased, 1998
Photographs Collection
NPG x87560

Sitterback to top

  • Dame Stella Rimington (1935-), Director-General of the Security Service and Head of MI5. Sitter in 2 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Boo Beaumont, Photographer. Artist or producer of 12 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Pioneering Women, p. 135 Read entry

    Stella Rimington (b.1935) was the first female Director General (DG) of the UK Security Service, MI5 – a post she held from 1992 to 1996

    – and its first head to be publicly named (in 1993). After joining MI5 in 1969, she worked in all three main branches – counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism – becoming the first woman to be promoted director of a Service branch. Her years there coincided with great external change, from the Cold War to the miners’ strike. Equally, they were times of huge internal change within MI5, in that it had been customary when she was initially recruited for women to be barred from intelligence or operational work. When her leadership of the organisation became known, she was given the absurd tabloid label ‘housewife superspy’ and was even photographed en route to work, in a new spirit of openness. Upon her retirement in 1996, she was appointed Dame Commander (DCB), and has since written her autobiography, Open Secret (2001) and several bestselling novels. In 2011, she was chair of the Man Booker Prize judging panel.

  • Flavia Frigeri, Women At Work: 1900 to Now, 2023, p. 151

Placesback to top

Events of 1996back to top

Current affairs

The largest ever IRA bomb is detonated in Manchester causing the destruction of many buildings and over 200 injuries. Nobody died in the incident because a warning was given and the area evacuated. After the bombing much of Manchester was rebuild and in 1998 it won a successful bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana finalise their divorce after four years of separation.

Art and science

The Spice Girls enjoy massive popular success with their first single Wannabe going straight to Number 1. The group are remembered as much for their sassy, outspoken 'girl power' attitude and their continuing subsequent celebrity as for their music.
Danny Boyle tells the story of a group of Edinburgh heroin addicts in his critically acclaimed film version of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting.

International

The First Chechnya War breaks out between Chechnya and Russia when Russian forces invade the country in support of Chechnyan opposition to the government. The invasion went badly with strong Chechnyan resistance and dissent in the Russian command. However, a truce was finally established after Russia seized the capital Grozny. More than 46,000 people died as a result of the conflict.

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