Dame Alix Hester Marie Kilroy, Lady Meynell, DBE (1903–1999) was one of the first two women to have entered the administrative grade of the Civil Service by examination (in 1925). She was given a desk at the Board of Trade, where she ascended to Under-Secretary and where she served for 30 years (aside from a brief spell at the newly formed Monopolies Commission). She retired in 1955. She marked her 95th birthday by publishing a new book: What Grandmother Said (published February 1998), was the last of her writings. Her 1988 autobiography, Public Servant, Private Woman, charted her progress through government.