Elizabeth Manningham-Buller started her career as a teacher in London in the 1970s, never dreaming that one day she’d be a celebrated MI5 officer and break over six centuries of royal tradition.
But that’s exactly what she did this week when King Charles III appointed her the first female Chancellor of the Order of the Garter (most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system) in history.
It’s an incredible honour for Manningham-Buller, but it’s far from the first time she’s broken gendered barriers.
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Born in 1948, to Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, later Viscount Dilhorne, and Lady Mary Lilian Lindsay, who was daughter to the 27th Earl of Crawford, Manningham-Buller had a comfortable upbringing.
Her father was the UK Attorney General and Lord Chancellor, while her mother had trained carrier-pigeons during the Second World War which were used by the Allied resistance in Europe.
Manningham-Buller attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before starting her teaching career, which was cut short in 1974, when she was recruited into MI5 at cocktail party in Chelsea.
“I can remember my father being rather reluctant for me to join the service,” she said during an appearance on the Desert Island Discs radio program in 2007.
”He thought [I’d] always be dealing with the murky side of life, but actually I stayed because it’s been incredibly rewarding to be involved with teams who have managed, often unsung, to protect the UK in various ways.”
She joined MI5 at a time when women faced many challenges in the service but quickly made her mark, working on everything from counter-espionage, to liaising with spy services around the world.
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In 1997 she was appointed Deputy Director General of MI5, then became Director General in 2002. Manningham-Buller was the second woman in history to ever hold the title.
Three years later she received her first royal honour when she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath during the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 2005 birthday honours.
After more than 30 years of service, she resigned from MI5 in April 2007 and the following year, the Queen recognised Manningham-Buller again – this time with a peerage.
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British royal family members and their many titles
“The Queen has been pleased […] to confer the dignity of a Barony of the United Kingdom for life upon The Honourable Dame Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller, DCB, by the name, style and title of Baroness Manningham-Buller, of Northampton in the County of Northamptonshire,” read the announcement in the London Gazette in June 2008.
In 2014, Her Majesty bestowed another honour upon the former MI5 director, appointing her a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter. Until recently, it was the highest honour a woman could hold in the Order.
Not content with all the barriers she’d already broken, Manningham-Buller went on to become the first female chair of biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust in 2015. She was replaced by Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2021.
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Now she’s made history again, becoming the first female Chancellor of the Order of the Garter since its founding over 650 years ago in 1348.
Created by King Edward III, only a monarch can appoint members to the Order and King Charles was said to be “graciously pleased” to honour Manningham-Buller with the new title.
It will come into effect on June 18, after Trooping the Colour this weekend and the annual Garter Day at Windsor Castle on June 17.
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