• Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

• In office
4 May 1979 – 28 November 1990
• MonarchElizabeth II
• DeputyWilliam Whitelaw (1979–1988)
Geoffrey Howe (1989–1990)
• Preceded byJames Callaghan
• Succeeded byJohn MajorSecretary of State for Education and Science
• In office
20 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
• Prime MinisterEdward Heath
• Preceded byEdward Short
• Succeeded byReginald Prentice
• Member of Parliament
for Finchley
• In office
8 October 1959 – 9 April 1992
• Preceded byJohn Crowder
• Succeeded byHartley Booth
• Born13 October 1925 ) (age 82)
Grantham, Lincolnshire, England
• Political partyConservative
• SpouseSir Denis Thatcher, Bt (1915-2003)
• ChildrenCarol Thatcher, Mark Thatcher
• Alma materSomerville College, Oxford
• ProfessionScientist (Chemist)
Lawyer
• Religion Methodist
 Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts; born
13 October 1925) is a former British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 until 1990.
She is the first and only woman to hold either post.
Born in Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, and went on to read Chemistry at Somerville
College, Oxford. She was selected as Conservative candidate for Finchley in 1958 and
took her seat in the House of Commons the following year. Upon the election of Edward
Heath in 1970, Thatcher was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. In
1974, she backed Sir Keith Joseph for the Conservative party leader, but after falling short
he dropped out of the race. Thatcher entered herself and became leader of the
Conservative party in 1975. Among other things, she defiantly opposed the Soviet Union,
and her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "Iron Lady".As the
Conservative party maintained leads in most polls, Thatcher went on to become Britain's
Prime Minister in the 1979 General Election.
Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister was the longest since that of Lord Salisbury and was
the longest continuous period in office since the tenure of Lord Liverpool who was Prime
Minister in the early 19th century. She was the first woman to lead a major political party
in the UK, and the first of only three women to have held any of the four great offices of
state. She currently has a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of
Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords. During her tenure as Prime
Minister she was said to need just four hours sleep a night.
 • As Leader of the Opposition

Margaret Thatcher elected

as Leader of the Opposition
on 18 September 1975.
 Prime Minister (1979–1990)

Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979, with

a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce
the role of the state in the economy. Thatcher was incensed by
one contemporary view within the Civil Service, that its job
was to manage the UK's decline from the days of Empire, and
she wanted the country to assert a higher level of influence
and leadership in international affairs. She became a very
close ally, philosophically and politically, with President
Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980 in the United States.
• Thatcher with close ally and friend, United
States President Ronald Reagan, 1981
• Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasised
reduced state intervention, free markets, and
entrepreneurialism. After the 1983 election, the Government
sold off most of the large utilities, starting with British
Telecom, which had been in public ownership since the late
1940s. Many people took advantage of share offers, although
many sold their shares immediately for a quick profit and
therefore the proportion of shares held by individuals rather
than institutions did not increase. The policy of privatisation,
while anathema to many on the Left, has become synonymous
with Thatcherism. Wider share-ownership and council house
sales became known as "popular capitalism" to its supporters
(a term coined by John Redwood). In 1985, as a deliberate
snub, the University of Oxford voted to refuse her an honorary
degree in protest against her cuts in funding for higher
education.[This award had always previously been given to all
Prime Ministers who had been educated at Oxford.
 South African controversy

• Thatcher's Ministry meets with Reagan's

Cabinet at the White House, 1981
 Gulf War

• Thatcher reviews Bermudian troops, 12

December 1990
 Recent activities

Thatcher attends the official Washington, D.C. memorial service marking the
5th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, pictured with Vice President Dick
Cheney and his wife Lynne Cheney.
 Thatcher attends the official
Washington, D.C. memorial service
marking the 5th anniversary of the 9/11
terror attacks, pictured with Vice President
Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne Cheney.
The arms of Margaret Thatcher. The admiral
represents the Falklands War, the image
of Sir Isaac Newton her background as a
chemist and her birth town Grantham.