Margaret Hilda Thatcher - A Biography

Young Years

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October, 1925, in Grantham, northern England. She was the daughter of Alfred Roberts, a local businessman, and Beatrice Ethel, working in the two grocery stores owned by Margaret’s father. She was educated at the local Grantham Girls’ High School. Thatcher was introduced to politics by her father, whom, aside from being a businessman, was part of Grantham’s town council.Margaret Thatcher (then Roberts) did so well in school that she was accepted to Oxford University, where she studied chemistry. She was the president of the Conservative Association at the university, displaying her early interest in politics. She had a hard time connecting with her peers, and felt that Oxford was a cold and unforgiving town. Later, she came to support herself as a research chemist, working off her degree.

Early Political Career

Thatcher ran for a seat in the Dartford parliamentary in 1950 and 1951, earning respect from her fellow conservatives, even though she was not elected, as was expected for a woman in the 1950’s. She married Denis Thatcher, officially making her Margaret Thatcher, two months after her second loss, in 1951 - thus making her more attractive as a political candidate.

After these defeats, Margaret chose to focus on her career and family and in 1953 she both gave birth to her twins Mark & Carol and finished her law degree. But already in 1959, she was back in politics and won a seat in the House of Commons and 1961 she became parliamentary under secretary for pensions and national insurance.

When the Conservatives took office in June 1970, Thatcher moved up from her position in the so called Shadow Cabinet, the group of people who would have seats in the Cabinet if and/or when their party came to power, where she had been sitting under the Twigs’ rule, to become secretary of state for education and science. Already at this point, she implemented changes that were defining for her political views, like abolishing the universal free school milk - which gave her very bad press. This was not as frustrating for Thatcher as the fact that she had a hard time getting Prime Minister Heath to listen to her ideas and view.

Margaret Thatcher - Prime Minister of Britain

Things were about to turn around for Margaret, because even though the Tories lost power in 1974, Thatcher gained popularity within the party and elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, effectively becoming the first female opposition leader in the House of Commons. When the Conservatives once again rose to power in 1979, due to the economical and political turmoil the brits were finding themselves in, Thatcher went down in history as the first british woman prime minister.

Thatcher lead Britain for eleven and a half years, under which one might argue that she saved the country, others say that she did the opposite . She implemented rather harsh economic policies, initially putting a lot of people out of work, breaking down the trade unions and privatizing social housing and transport. But eventually the national and private economy was boosted, effectively rising Britain from the former critical state.

Margaret also had to tackle other political challenges, like the argentine aggression over the Falkland Islands in 1982, where Thatcher controversially sent troops to defend the british sovereign territory against the argentinian invaders. In June 1982, the Argentines surrendered causing the British to rejoice. The conservatives saw their strong position and decided to call for re-elections, which they easily won in 1983. This meant that Thatcher would be prime minister for another 5 years, until 1987.

During this second term Thatcher lived through many critical events. In 1984 The IRA (Irish Republican Army) bombed 10th Downing Street, where the prime minister of Britain traditionally resides. Both Margaret and her husband Denis were unharmed, although 5 civilians died, in the bombing. The following day Margaret Thatcher continued the conservatives’ party conference, even though she had experienced an act of terrorism only hours earlier.

In 1984, Thatcher also met with the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as signing an agreement with the Chinese, regarding the future of Hong Kong. In 1986, she announced her support of American president Ronald Reagan (yes, Ronald Reagan the actor), allowing the U.S. troops to use British bases for their air raids in Libya.

The Decline of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was re-elected in 1987, thus starting her third term as Prime Minister. During her final term she wanted to make structural changes to the countries welfare system, but because of a political blunder, she implemented a wildly unpopular tax called a “poll tax”, many of her reforms failed. As for her discontent within the party grew the public's view on her also declined.

The Resignation of Thatcher

In 1990 she resign from her post as prime minister after being the first prime minister in Britain to be elected for three consecutive terms since Lord Liverpool in the 1850s. She resigned after her party in her own words betrayed her. Following her departure from the role as prime minister she tried to remain active in politics within her party.

After the Resignation

In 1992, shortly after having resigned, Margaret Thatcher was welcomed to the House of Lords. Later she wrote three books: The Downing Street Years (1993), The Path to Power (1995), and finally in 2002, Statecraft.

In 2003 Margaret’s husband, Denis Thatcher, died. Around this point in time, Margaret suffered from a few minor strokes. A year later, in 2004, Ronald Reagan, an old friend of Thatcher, passed away.

In July 2011, Thatcher had to leave the House of Lords permanently.

On April 8, 2013, Margaret Thatcher died, after having lived 87 years.