David Rolland Spedding was born on March 7 1943, the son of an Army colonel.
Spedding was then sent on his only foreign posting outside the Middle East, arriving in Santiago in 1972 in the middle of the growing conflict between the Left-wing government of President Salvador Allende and the Right-wing opposition.
Spedding was appointed OBE in 1980; CVO in 1984; and KCMG in 1996.
Spedding, who had studied at Oxford University, was recruited into MI6 in 1967 and attended the Middle East Center for Arabic Studies, near Beirut, Lebanon -- once a training center for British spies.
Spedding, like his predecessors, was known in government circles as "C," for Chief, the inspiration for "M," the creation of James Bond author Ian Fleming.
Spedding, who was knighted in 1996, is survived by his wife, Gillian, and two sons.
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