Sir Alex Younger

Alexander William Younger was born in Westminster, London, on 4 July 1963 to Nicholas Younger and Mary Younger (née Edge), a family of Scottish heritage. Obituaries in The Guardian and The Herald describe his father as part of the Scottish Younger brewing family. He was the first son of the family. Reports differ on any link to the late defence secretary George Younger: The Guardian called him a cousin, while a 2019 Telegraph correction said there was no link to that family. He kept a lifelong love of Scotland and, as Chief, had a tapestry by the Scottish artist Elizabeth Blackadder on his office wall.

Younger was educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire. He then studied economics and computer science at the University of St Andrews, sponsored through his degree by the British Army. He was first approached about joining the secret service while still a student but turned the invitation down at that stage. He returned to St Andrews in December 2018 to give one of the few public speeches ever made by a serving MI6 chief.

He was commissioned into the Royal Scots as a second lieutenant on 5 September 1986 and transferred to the Scots Guards on 10 December 1986. He was promoted to captain on 5 April 1989 and moved to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers on 10 April 1990, ending his active service. The Independent reported that he carried a lifelong ankle injury from his time as an officer.

Younger joined MI6 in 1991. His first job was in the western Balkans during the Yugoslav Wars, travelling under false identities and, in his words, spending "many nights drinking obscure homemade alcohol, piecing together the intentions of the parties to that conflict". He said that work helped lead to the arrest and prosecution of war criminals. He was posted to Vienna from 1995 to 1998 and Dubai from 2002 to 2005, and served as head of the MI6 station in Afghanistan during the US-led campaign against the Taliban, overseeing all of the service's operations in the country. The Guardian reported that he kept President Hamid Karzai supplied with his mother's homemade blackberry jam, which Karzai liked in his tea.

In 2009 he became head of counter-terrorism, a period that included the response to the 2009 "underwear bomber" plot and responsibility for security against threats to the London 2012 Olympics. He became deputy director in 2012. The Independent reported that he joined the National Security Council, advising the prime minister on intelligence and security matters. In October 2014 he was named as the 16th Chief, taking office on 1 November 2014 and succeeding Sir John Sawers.

As Chief he led the service through the rise of Islamic State, Russian aggression after Crimea, and the 2018 Salisbury nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal. He encouraged closer work with MI5, opened recruitment to applicants from 18 and from wider social backgrounds, and championed technology. Theresa May asked him to remain an extra year to provide stability through Brexit, making him the longest-serving Chief in 50 years. He stepped down on 30 September 2020 and was succeeded by Sir Richard Moore.

In December 2020 Younger became a trustee of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He took an advisory role at Goldman Sachs and in 2025 joined the advisory board of Datenna, a Netherlands-based provider of techno-economic intelligence on China. He became a frequent commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Newsnight, ITV's Peston, Times Radio, the Financial Times and The Economist, and appeared on The Independent's World of Trouble podcast. In October 2020 he gave a wide-ranging interview to Angelina Jolie for Time magazine.

In 1993 Younger married Sarah Hopkins, daughter of the architects Sir Michael Hopkins and Patty Hopkins, in Borgo a Mozzano, Tuscany. She later became an arts administrator. They had three children: Tom, Sam and Amy. Sam, a 22-year-old politics student at the University of Edinburgh and a former Dulwich College pupil, was killed in a motor vehicle accident on a private estate in Stirlingshire on 30 March 2019; police said there were no suspicious circumstances. Younger was an enthusiastic and talented sailor and, according to The Herald, often jogged on the Thames towpath near the MI6 headquarters.

Younger described himself as "a romantic" who believed in human agency and the idea that individuals can make a difference. He argued that the West faced a chronic threat from Russia's disinformation and subversion, but warned against exaggerating the effect of "relatively crude and unsophisticated attacks". He raised concerns in 2018 about Huawei's role in Britain's 5G network and said the West must organise against China while accepting the need for coexistence. He called the West's recent approach to the world hubristic, said Brexit had marginalised Britain, and in 2025 urged the UK to rearm and rebuild its reserves, possibly through a form of national service. He said he would take the integrity of George Smiley over the antics of James Bond.

Younger is remembered as the Chief who made MI6 more visible and more diverse without compromising its secrets. He gave rare public speeches, opened recruitment to younger and more varied applicants, revealed that Q was a woman, and continued the C tradition of signing in green ink. His successors and political leaders praised his integrity, wit and steadiness. RUSI's trustees said they would look at further ways to mark his memory.

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), 2011 Birthday Honours. Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), 2019 Birthday Honours, for services to the United Kingdom.

Younger toured the set of the James Bond film No Time to Die around his 2020 retirement and declined the offer of a cameo. In Richard Tomlinson's book The Big Breach he is said to be portrayed as "Spencer", a St Andrews graduate and former Scots Guardsman. He was a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, where presenter Nick Robinson became a friend, and gave filmed interviews to ITV's Peston, BBC Newsnight, the Financial Times and The Economist, whose final filmed interview with him was published after his death.

In 2018 Younger said he was "perplexed" by the UAE's detention of British academic Matthew Hedges, who was later pardoned. In 2019 he warned that British women who had joined Islamic State had acquired skills and connections that could make them dangerous, comments made as the government moved to strip Shamima Begum of citizenship. In retirement, his description of Brexit as having marginalised Britain and his comments on Donald Trump's views of Russia drew political attention.

Younger was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2025. He died in Boston, United States, in the early hours of Tuesday 2 June 2026, aged 62, and his family confirmed the news. Tributes came from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Prince of Wales, former prime minister Theresa May, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and MI6 Chief Blaise Metreweli. Funeral and burial details have not been made public.