23 December 2023 , 16:00
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Britain’s longest-serving spy has finally retired from MI5 after more than 50 years of secret service.
The 90-year-old – who can only be identified as Barbara – joined the agency in 1968, at the height of the Cold War.
She said: “I came across a vacancy for the Ministry of Defence. It was only after I was offered the job I was told I was joining MI5. I’d never heard of MI5, it meant nothing to me. I was soon posted to the section investigating foreign intelligence. I knew nothing about the Cold War or KGB but soon got up to speed.”
Barbara went on to work in many different areas of MI5, including personnel management. Then, in 1990, as she neared retirement, she was posted back to where she had started. “It seemed fitting – I joined at the height of the Cold War and here I was watching the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union,” she said.
But just before she was due to retire, Barbara was asked to postpone her exit for six months. She stayed two years and was still not done, moving to recruitment next. And in 2007, aged 74, she was offered a role in MI5’s history section. She said: “I’d always felt if there was something the organisation wanted me to do, I would stay on.”
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Barbara, who served under 12 director-generals, added of her long career: “I enjoyed it thoroughly and learned a lot.”