4 May — in history - Margaret Thatcher was sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister

Margaret Thatcher

4 May — in history - Margaret Thatcher was sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister

4 May — in history - Margaret Thatcher was sworn in as Britain's first female prime minister

Margaret Thatcher, the 'Iron Lady,' was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Britain on May 4, 1979, and became a towering figure in British 20th century politics. She was not only the UK's first woman prime minister, but she was also the first woman prime minister in Europe.

Father: Alfred Roberts, grocer, active in local community and politics

Mother: Beatrice Ethel Stephenson Roberts

Sister: Muriel (born 1921)

Husband: Denis Thatcher, wealthy industrialist - married December 13, 1951

Children: twins, born in August 1953

Mark Thatcher

Carol Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was the first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom and the first European woman to serve as a prime minister. 

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. She was introduced to Conservative politics at an early age by her father, Alfred, who was a grocery store manager and member of the town's council. She was educated at a local grammar school and won a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford University, in 1943, where she became president of the university's Conservative association. She gained a degree in chemistry in 1947 and went on to work as a research chemist in Colchester and Dartford. In 1950 and 1951, she studied to become a barrister and ran as the Conservative candidate in industrial Dartford in North Kent. During this campaign, she met Denis Thatcher, who managed his family's company in North Kent. The two were married on December 13, 1951, and became the parents of twins, Mark and Carol, in August 1953.

Thatcher became the youngest woman in the House of Commons in 1959, at the age of 34. he became prime minister in May 1979, when the Conservatives won the majority of seats. In June 1987, her Conservative Party won its third consecutive general election victory. Thatcher appeared likely to continue as prime minister for many years.  She had boasted of the economic successes of her two previous governments as well as her strong foreign and defence policies. Yet Thatcher's third term was to be her least productive. With public opinion turning decisively against her, she was forced to resign from office in November 1990 after a struggle for leadership within the Conservative Party. She was succeeded by John Major, the chancellor of the exchequer since October 1989, who was a supporter of her policies.

Thatcher's 11½ years as prime minister were remarkable. She held office longer than any other prime minister in the 20th century. She impressed her vision upon Britain in a distinctive way, making the word "Thatcherism" a part of that nation's political vocabulary.

In the month following the Thatcher's resignation Queen Elizabeth II appointed the former prime minister a member of the Order of Merit, one of only 24 members (a vacancy occurred with the 1989 death of Laurence Olivier). The new Lady Thatcher's husband, Denis, received a baronetcy (to become Sir Denis). A second honour came on March 7, 1991, when Thatcher received the U.S. Medal of Freedom from President Bush. Although she was no longer prime minister, Thatcher remained politically active. She became president of the Bruges Group of British lawmakers opposed to a full political union with Europe, as well as of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, designed to help bring order to the world.

In 2002, Margaret Thatcher had several small strokes and gave up her lecture tours. On July 31, 2011, Thatcher's office in the House of Lords was closed, according to her son, Sir Mark Thatcher. She died on April 8, 2013, after suffering another stroke.

Margaret Thatcher wrote her memoirs in two volumes: The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995). Two previous biographies of Thatcher are particularly worthwhile: Kenneth Harris, Thatcher (1988), and Hugo Young, The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher 1989; (published in Britain under the title One of Us).

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