Obituaries

Alex Younger, an urbane but steely career intelligence officer who from 2014 to 2020 led Britain’s espionage agency, MI6, where he promoted the use of technology while confronting rising threats from Islamic State terrorism and a revanchist Russia, has died. He was 62.

Blaise Metreweli, the current head of MI6, said the cause was cancer. No further details were immediately available.

For six years, Mr. Younger was Britain’s top international spy, sitting at the apex of the country’s overseas intelligence gathering operations, attending its National Security Council and advising three prime ministers. British spy chiefs typically hold the top job for five years, and Mr. Younger’s slightly extended tenure made him the longest-serving head of MI6 in half a century.