Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman. She served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. As prime minister, she implemented policies that became known as Thatcherism. Thatcher died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87.

About Margaret Thatcher in brief

Summary Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman. She served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. As prime minister, she implemented policies that became known as Thatcherism. Thatcher died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87. She is regarded as a controversial figure in the UK, but is viewed favourably in historical rankings of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in the U.K. and debate over Thatcherism’s legacy persists into the 21st century. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. Her father owned a tobacconist’s and a grocery shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire. In 1938, prior to the Second World War, the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had escaped Nazi Germany. Margaret, with her pen-friending elder sister Muriel, saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager’s journey. Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Granthams Girls’ School, a grammar school. In 1942, she was head girl at Kesteven School, where she was known for her hard work and hard work. In 1943, she entered Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.

Her dissertation was on the antibiotic structure of gramic X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin. In 1952, she became a member of the London School of Economics. In 1959, she won a seat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Finchley. In 1975, she defeated Edward Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition. In 1983, Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baronesses Thatcher which entitled her to sit in the house of Lords. She died in 2013, aged 87, after suffering a stroke in London’s Ritz hotel. She had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as acute myelodysplastic syndrome (AMS), which caused her to lose her ability to walk, talk and breathe normally. She also suffered a stroke that left her unable to walk or talk for several months. Her funeral was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where her father had been a vicar. Her husband, Alfred Roberts, was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher, and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist, attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church, but Margaret was more sceptical; the future scientist told a friend that she could not believe in angels.