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Born on 13 October 1925
Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson) from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops. -
Period: to
The Iron Lady
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Education
She arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree; in her final year she specialised in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin. She was reportedly much more proud of becoming the first Prime Minister with a science degree than the first female Prime Minister. -
Early political career and marrage
The local party selected her as its candidate because, while not a dynamic public speaker, She attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate. She lost both times to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000. During the campaigns she was supported by her parents and by Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951. -
Member of Parliament
Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election.Benefiting from her fortunate result in a lottery for backbenchers to propose new legislation,Thatcher's maiden speech was in support of her private member's bill, requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public. -
Education Secretary and Cabinet Minister
The Conservative party under Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was subsequently appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science. During her first months in office she attracted public attention as a result of the administration's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools.During her tenure as Education Secretary she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals for schools to become comprehensives. -
Leader of the Opposition
Thatcher became party leader and Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975;she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher's leadership. -
A speech in Kensington
On 19 January 1976 Thatcher made a speech in Kensington Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union:
"The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. ......."
In response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) called her the "Iron Lady,"a sobriquet she gladly adopted. -
Prime Minister
Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at 10 Downing Street, she said, in a paraphrase of the "Prayer of Saint Francis:" Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope." -
Northern Ireland
On 6 November 1981 Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments. -
Hong Kong's return to China
In September 1982 she visited China to discuss with Deng Xiaoping the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. China was the first communist state Thatcher had visited and she was the first British prime minister to visit China. Throughout their meeting, she sought the PRC's agreement to a continued British presence in the territory. Deng stated clearly the PRC's sovereignty on Hong Kong was non-negotiable, but he was willing to settle the sovereignty issue with Britain through formal negotiations, -
Hong Kong's Return to China
After the two-year negotiations, Thatcher made concession to the PRC government and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing in 1984, agreeing to hand over Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997. -
Northern Ireland
On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest the Ulster Says No movement attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast,Ian Gow resigned as Minister of State in the HM Treasury,and all fifteen Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 J -
Challenges to leadership and resignation
Thatcher was replaced as Prime Minister and party leader by her Chancellor John Major, who oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading up to the 1992 general election and led the Conservatives to their fourth successive victory on 9 April 1992.Thatcher favoured Major over Heseltine in the leadership contest, but her support for him weakened in later years. -
Later Life
After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher became the first former Prime Minister to set up a foundation;the British wing was dissolved in 2005 because of financial difficulties.She wrote two volumes of memoirs, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995). In 1991, she and her husband Dennis moved to a house in Chester Square, a residential garden square in central London's Belgravia district. -
Husband's death
Sir Denis Thatcher died of heart failure on 26 June 2003 and was cremated on 3 July. She had paid tribute to him in The Downing Street Years, writing "Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be: you cannot lead from the crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend." -
Death
Following several years of poor health, Thatcher died on the morning of 8 April 2013 at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in The Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home.
