Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on the 13th of October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her father Alfred Roberts owned a tobacconist and grocery shop that served as the family home. He was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher who raised her with strict Wesleyan values. The young Margaret attended Finkin Street Methodist Church but later told friends she could not believe in angels because they needed a breastbone long enough to support wings. She won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls School where teachers noted her hard work and continual improvement. During the Second World War she voluntarily worked as a fire watcher for the local ARP service while also serving as head girl from 1942 to 1943. In 1943 she entered Somerville College Oxford to study chemistry under X-ray crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin. Hodgkin considered Roberts a good student who always produced sensible well-read essays. Roberts opted for a classified honours degree which required an additional year of supervised research. Her thesis focused on determining the structure of the antibiotic peptide gramicidin S alongside researcher Gerhard Schmidt. Although the research made some progress the peptide's structure proved more complex than anticipated. She graduated in 1947 with a second-class honours degree in chemistry.
After graduating Roberts secured a position as a research chemist for British Xylonite following interviews arranged by Oxford. She moved to Colchester in Essex to work at the firm researching methods of attaching polyvinyl chloride to metals. By 1948 she applied for a job at Imperial Chemical Industries but was rejected after personnel assessed her as headstrong obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated. She joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno Wales in 1948. Officials of the Dartford Conservative Association asked her to apply even though she was not on the approved list. She was selected in January 1950 aged 24 and added to the approved list post ante. At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949 she met divorcé Denis Thatcher who drove her to her Essex train. In September 1951 their research on saponification of alpha-monostearin was published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. This would be Roberts's sole scientific publication. She married Denis in December 1951 and they had twins Carol and Mark delivered prematurely by Caesarean section later that year. In 1954 she was defeated when seeking selection for the Orpington by-election of January 1955. She chose not to stand as a candidate in the 1955 general election stating it was too soon with only two children.
Thatcher became Member of Parliament for Finchley after winning the 1959 election following a hard campaign. Her maiden speech was unusually in support of her private member's bill the Public Bodies Admission to Meetings Act 1960 which required local authorities to hold council meetings in public. The bill was successful and became law. In October 1961 she was promoted to Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Pensions by Harold Macmillan making her the youngest woman in history to receive such a post. During the 1973 oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases the Heath government lost the February 1974 general election. Thatcher eventually became the main challenger promising a fresh start against Edward Heath. She defeated Heath on the first ballot and then Whitelaw on the second. Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition on the 11th of February 1975 appointing Whitelaw as her deputy. Television critic Clive James compared her voice of 1973 to a cat sliding down a blackboard before her election. She began attending lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs where she was influenced by ideas from Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon. In 1976 she gave her Britain Awake foreign policy speech lambasting the Soviet Union saying it was bent on world dominance. A Soviet Army journal Red Star reported her stance in a piece headlined Iron Lady Raises Fears alluding to her remarks on the Iron Curtain.
On the 2nd of April 1982 the military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the Crown colony of the Falkland Islands beginning the Falklands War. Thatcher set up and chaired a small War Cabinet to oversee the conduct of the war which authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands by the 5th or the 6th of April. Argentina surrendered on the 14th of June and Operation Corporate was hailed a success notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and three Falkland Islanders. Argentine fatalities totalled 649 half of them aboard that was torpedoed and sunk by on the 2nd of May. In October 1983 Reagan did not consult with her on the invasion of Grenada causing a sharp disagreement. She permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. On the 12th of October 1984 she narrowly escaped injury in an IRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning. Five people were killed including the wife of minister John Wakeham. Thatcher delivered her
speech as planned though rewritten from her original draft enhancing her popularity with the public.
In July 1989 Thatcher removed Geoffrey Howe as foreign secretary after he and Lawson had forced her to agree to a plan for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Britain joined the ERM in October 1990. On the 1st of November 1990 Howe resigned as deputy prime minister ostensibly over her open hostility to moves towards European monetary union. His resignation speech on the 13th of November was instrumental in Thatcher's downfall attacking her dismissive attitude to government proposals for a new European currency. Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party on the 14th of November. Although Thatcher led on the first ballot with votes of 204 Conservative MPs to 152 votes for Heseltine she was four votes short of the required 15% majority. After consultation with her cabinet persuaded her to withdraw. She left Downing Street in tears on the 28th of November 1990 after holding an audience with the Queen. Chancellor John Major replaced Thatcher as head of government and party leader whose lead over Heseltine in the second ballot was sufficient for Heseltine to drop out. In 1991 she and husband Denis moved to a house in Chester
Square central London's Belgravia district. Thatcher died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel London on the 8th of April 2013 at the age of 87.
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Common questions
When was Margaret Thatcher born and where did she grow up?
Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on the 13th of October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her father Alfred Roberts owned a tobacconist and grocery shop that served as the family home.
What degree did Margaret Thatcher earn from Somerville College Oxford?
Margaret Thatcher graduated in 1947 with a second-class honours degree in chemistry. She studied under X-ray crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin and wrote her thesis on the structure of the antibiotic peptide gramicidin S alongside researcher Gerhard Schmidt.
How long did Margaret Thatcher serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition on the 11th of February 1975 before winning the general election.
When did the Falklands War end and how many British servicemen died during the conflict?
Argentina surrendered on the 14th of June 1982 ending the Falklands War. The conflict resulted in the deaths of 255 British servicemen and three Falkland Islanders.
Why did Margaret Thatcher resign as head of government in November 1990?
Margaret Thatcher resigned after Geoffrey Howe resigned as deputy prime minister on the 1st of November 1990 over her open hostility to moves towards European monetary union. Her resignation speech on the 13th of November was instrumental in Michael Heseltine mounting a challenge for the leadership which led to her withdrawal on the 28th of November 1990.