Margaret Thatcher Biography

Ask most people to name a British Prime Minister of the 1900's and chances are the two that spring instantly to mind would be Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.Born the younger of two daughters to Alfred, a grocer, and Beatrice Roberts, on October 13th 1925 in the town of Grantham, in Lincolnshire, England, Margaret was raised in a household where politics was a daily subject with her father serving as an Alderman and being active in local politics in general. Her father was also a Methodist lay preacher and as such had a big influence on her life of Christianity.Margaret attended Kesteven and Grantham Girl's School and was academically a gifted child subsequently going on to Somerville College, Oxford in 1944 where she studied chemistry. In 1946 she was elected president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and was only the third woman to hold the position. With her interest in crystallography Margaret became a member of the team that developed the first soft frozen ice cream.Thatcher's first attempt at entering the political arena was as the candidate for Dartford where she was the youngest female Conservative candidate to hold the office. It was there that she met Dennis who she went on to marry in 1951. Dennis was a wealthy business man who paid for Margaret to study for the Bar and when she qualified in 1953 she completed the year with the birth of her twin children, Carol Thatcher and Mark Thatcher.Thatcher then began to look for a safe Conservative seat and was narrowly rejected as candidate for Orpington, Kent, in 1954. She had several other rejections before being selected for Finchley, London, in April 1958When the Conservative party under Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education and Science before rising to leader of the Conservative party.After the vote of no confidence in the Labour Government of James Callaghan in spring 1979, the ensuing 1979 General Election gave the Conservatives a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons and so it was that the United Kingdom was to have its first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, occupying number 10 Downing Street, London.When Thatcher took over in 1979, Britain was nicknamed the sick man of Europe in the 1970s. Arguably, the UK emerged from the 1980s as one of the more successful economies in Europe.In her final months in office Margaret was to put pressure on US President George H W Bush to deploy troops to the Middle East to drive Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait. Bush was somewhat apprehensive about the plan, but she famously told him that this was no time to go wobbly!In 1990 Margaret was to face political assassination when, as an undefeated prime minister at the poles, she would suffer a vote of no confidence by her own party and be ousted from power. She was succeeded by John Major who's position she supported at the time but would later go on to critisize.In 1992, Margaret Thatcher was made Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire.During her time in number 10 Downing Street she had become a close friend and ally of Ronald Reagan and is known to have convinced Reagan that Mikhail Gorbachev was sincere in his desire to reform and liberalize the Soviet Union. She felt the loss of her friend, Ronald, when on 11 June 2004, she attended the funeral of the former United States President at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Thatcher then flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and internment ceremony for President Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.To mark Margaret's 80th birthday in 2005, a party was held in London where the guests included Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy.In September, 2006, Margaret Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service marking the 5th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. She attended as a guest of the U.S. Vice President, Dick Cheney, and met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during her visit. It marked her first visit to the United States since the funeral for former U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in April 2006.Many politicians from all parties and countries have stated their admiration for the straight-forward, unflinching way in which she conducted her policies. The first woman to hold the post of Prime Minister, she was also one of the longest serving British Prime Ministers and her departure was one of the most dramatic events in British political history.Tony Blair, although a Labour Prime Minister, has recognized the importance of Margaret Thatcher and she in return was quoted as saying, The Conservative Party doesn't need someone that can beat Mr Blair. They need someone like Mr Blair.Margaret Thatcher's coat of arms bears the words Cherish Freedom .