Margaret Gilmore (born 9 February 1956) is a journalist, broadcaster, writer and analyst. She frequently broadcasts, writes and lectures on security issues and is a Senior Associate Fellow with the lead UK security think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Formerly a Senior BBC Correspondent covering terrorism, she now also sits on public service boards in the UK. She is Deputy Chair of the HFEA; Asst Commissioner, Boundary Commission for England; Board Member Food Standards Agency (2007–14). Early life Gilmore was born on 9 February 1956 in Zululand in South Africa. Education From 1965–1972, Gilmore was educated at St Brandon's School, a former junior and senior boarding independent school for girls in the town of Clevedon in Somerset, followed by North London Collegiate School (1972–74), an independent school for girls in Edgware in North London. She then studied at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary University of London, from 1974–1977, where she obtained a BA Honours Degree in English. Life and career Gilmore began her career as a journalist in 1977 reporting for local newspapers in London. She moved into radio working for local stations in Ipswich and Bristol and then Independent Radio News. She joined the BBC in 1985 as a reporter based in Northern Ireland. From there she moved to Breakfast News, and then BBC 2's Newsnight, where she specialised in Irish Affairs. Gilmore worked for Thames Television's This Week between 1989 and 1993 where she covered a wide range of subjects filming all over the world. While with This Week, she made the first western documentary on the Lebanon hostage crisis while the hostages were still in captivity, and was the first western reporter allowed into East Germany after the resignation of Eric Honecker. She witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her two-part special on the American mafia reached record audiences of nearly nine million people. Gilmore returned to the BBC as a reporter on Panorama in 1993, where her programmes included "A Crime Unpunished" (on race and the law) and "Babies on Benefit". She has also travelled extensively for the BBC's Assignment programme. As a BBC News Correspondent, Gilmore covered the Newbury Bypass protests. In 1997 she became the Environment Correspondent for BBC Television News, winning the top environment award – a BEMA, as Television Environment Journalist of the Year – for her work on global warming, and the developing BSE and CJD crisis.