Legacies of the ‘Iron Lady’ from Grantham

As MPs (Members of Parliament)and Westminster staff gathered to pay tribute to Lady Thatcher on April 16^th, I thought aloud to myself, if there were still young women amongst our youth who remember the words ‘empowerment’, ‘honor’, ‘wisdom’, ‘sacrifice’ or ‘challenge’. Then, I tried to recall stories I had read of one of the most powerful women in the world who’d be put to rest this week.

The story of the Iron Lady is an endless tale. If I wrote extensively on her, I’d get fellow readers sleeping!. It should be noted, however, that the story of the great Baroness from Grantham is a source of inspiration to many young women (and men), so it should be read like great attention and patience.

Born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire (on October 13, 1925) to Alfred Roberts (a grocery store owner and local preacher) and Beatrice Ethel, she was raised in the flat above one of the two grocery stores (owned by her father) with her older sister, Muriel.

Late Margaret Thatcher was a model student right from her time in Huntingtower Road Primary School. She won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ school, where her school reports showed hard work and unrelenting development. She even made head prefect.

She schooled at Oxford from 1943 to 1947 (through a scholarship she was initially denied), where she bagged Second Class Honors for Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and specialized in X-ray crystallography.

Influenced by political works such as that of Friedrich von Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944), she became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946. It was as though she had found her flair for politics at a young age of 21.

But, it wasn’t the case, for after graduating, she moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics. Although, she applied for a job at ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), she was turned down after the personnel department described as ‘headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated’.

1950: her political career kick-started as she was selected and added to the approved list post ante when she impressed the officials of the Dartford Conservative Association (having attended the local Conservation Association party conference at Llandudno in 1948 as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association).

1950-51: Duirng the general elections, she attracted the media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate. Although, she lost twice to Norman Dodds, her family and her husband, Denis Thatcher (a successful and wealthy divorced businessman she met and married in February and December 1951 respectively) never ceased to support and believe in her.

1953: She qualified as a barrister specializing in taxation when Denis funded her studies for bar.

1955: Lost again when she sought selection as the candidate for the Orpington by-election. But, she never gave up hope.

1958: Finally, she was selected as a candidate for Finchley (after narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser) and elected as MP in the 1959 election. Even as she believed Israel had to trade land for peace, she condemned Israel’s 1981 bombing of Osirak as a grave breach of international law.

1966: She became a spokeswoman on Housing and Land. Moved to the Shadow Treasury team where she opposed Labour’s mandatory price and income controls. 

1970: She was appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science by Edward Heath (Leader of the Opposition), where she gave priority to academic needs in schools.

1975: She defeated Heath to become not only the new Leader of the Opposition, but the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK.

1976: Thatcher made a speech where she brutally attacked the Soviet Union for clamoring for world dominance, and in response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda called her the ’’Iron Lady’’.

1979: Thatcher became the UK’s first female Prime Minister having won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons. During her time in office, she took responsibility for the furnishing of her official residence. An attitude that is presently absent in our leaders, as they preferred squandering tax payers’ money to furnish their official residences.

After 11 years of leading the United Kingdom, she was replaced as Prime Minister and party leader by Chancellor John Major. She retired from the House at the age of 66. She was honorary Chancellor of the College of William and Mary from 1993 to 2000, and of the University of Buckingham from 1992 to 1999.

She lost her husband to heart failure on June 26^th, 2003, and finally died on April 8^th, 2013 after many years of illnesses. She raised two lovely twins, Sir Mark and Carol Thatcher. 

Margaret Thatcher wasn’t a saint. Her views and policies were praised and criticized by supporters and detractors. But, she was a woman who stood tall before men, kept her head up both in success and failures, and did what was necessary as the Iron Lady. Her legacies have been written on stone and her name will always be remembered by all.

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