AT a time when the terrorist threat is at its highest since the IRA where at their most dangerous, most would consider taking on the UK's highest profile police role as a poisoned chalice.

But for Cressida Dick, becoming the commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police is a dream come true.

The daughter of two university academics who was born and brought up in Oxford, she succeeded Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe who retired last month.

The 56-year-old will make the move from a low-profile role at the Foreign Office to become the country's most senior and prominent police officer - in charge of more than 43,000 officers and staff and a £3billion budget.

Speaking outside Scotland Yard after being handed the position, Ms Dick said she 'could not be more pleased'.

She added: "It is beyond my wildest dreams, an extraordinary privilege. I am very humbled."

Ms Dick was in competition for the post with former Thames Valley Chief Constable Sara Thornton, Essex Police chief Mark Rowley and Scotland Yard's Stephen Kavanagh.

Her appointment was welcomed by Prime Minister Theresa May - who she worked with to protect the London 2012 Olympics from terrorist attacks when Mrs May was Home Secretary - as well as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. 

Current Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Ms Dick was an 'exceptional leader' adding she had a 'clear vision for the future of the Metropolitan Police and an understanding of the diverse range of communities it serves'.

Oxford City Councillor John Tanner, who was the authority leader in 1998 during Ms Dick's tenure as LPA commander for the city, said the new Met chief was an 'outstanding' Superintendent, who 'did a lot to improve' communities.

He added: "It's a feather in the Oxford cap that Cressida Dick has reached those dizzy heights. I hope she does a good a job for London as she did for Oxford."

Although she has spent the last two years out of the force, Ms Dick had spent more than 30 years working in policing prior to her departure from the Met.

Born and brought up in Oxford, she attended the Dragon School and Oxford High School, before being educated at the city's university, graduating from Balliol College.

Yesterday, the college tweeted their congratulations to the former student who attended the college in 1979.

She worked briefly in accountancy before joining the Met in 1983 as a constable, before moving up the ranks to sergeant and inspector in central south-west and south-east London.

In 1995 she transferred to Thames Valley Police as Superintendent Operations at Oxford and returned to her home city of Oxford to spend spent three years as Area Commander where she won praise for her fresh and innovative thinking around crime fighting.

She took a career break to study for a Master's degree in criminology at Cambridge University, before returning to the Met as a commander in June 2001.

Ms Dick, who was the UK police lead for hostage negotiation, was appointed director of the force's diversity directorate and head of the racial and violent crime task force before moving to the specialist crime directorate in 2003.

During her second stint at the Met, Ms Dick took on command roles in the police response to the 9/11 attacks and the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

She was thrust into the public eye in 2005 after she was in charge of the operation that led to the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber.

A jury later cleared Ms Dick of any blame in his death.

In February 2007 she was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, before becoming the country's most senior female officer in 2009 when she was made the Met's first Assistant Commissioner.

She was the national lead for counter-terrorism for three years, and also led the security operations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and 2012 Olympics.

Her work at the Met also included leading the re-investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the police response to the killing of Lee Rigby.

Ms Dick, who is seen as popular with the rank-and-file, left Scotland Yard in January 2015 to become a director general at the Foreign Office.

When her departure was announced, Sir Bernard described her as 'a role model for women across the service'.

Ms Dick was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for services to policing in 2010 and a CBE in 2015.