Denis Thatcher 253374 225474699 2008-07-13T21:55:12Z 82.38.18.89 {{Infobox Person | name = Sir Denis Thatcher, [[Baronet|Bt.]] | image = Denis Thatcher Nancy Reagan 1988.jpg | image_size = | caption = Denis Thatcher (right) greets US [[First Lady]] [[Nancy Reagan]], 1988 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1915|5|10|df=y}} | birth_place = [[London]], [[England]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|6|26|1915|5|10|df=y}} | death_place = [[London]], [[England]] | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | residence = | nationality = [[British people|British]] | other_names = | known_for = [[Spouses of the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom|Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] | education = [[Mill Hill School]] | employer = | occupation = Businessman | title = | salary = | networth = | height = | weight = | term = [[4 May]] [[1979]] – [[28 November]] [[1990]] | predecessor = [[Audrey Callaghan, Baroness Callaghan of Cardiff|Audrey Callaghan]] | successor = [[Norma Major]] | party = | boards = | religion = | spouse = Margaret Kempson (1942–1948)<br>[[Margaret Thatcher]] (1951–2003) | partner = | children = [[Mark Thatcher|Sir Mark Thatcher 2nd Baronet]],<br />[[Carol Thatcher|The Honourable Carol Thatcher]] | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} [[Major]] '''Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet''', [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]], [[Territorial Decoration|TD]] ([[10 May]] [[1915]] &ndash; [[26 June]] [[2003]]) was an [[England|English]] [[businessman]], and the husband of the former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]], [[Margaret Thatcher|Baroness Thatcher]]. He was born in [[Lewisham]], [[London]], [[England]], the elder child of a [[New Zealand]]-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert (Jack) Thatcher, and his wife (Lilian) Kathleen, ''née'' Bird. [[As of 2007]], he is the last person outside the [[British Royal Family]] to be awarded a [[hereditary title]]. ==Early life and work== At the age of eight he entered a [[Preparatory school (UK)|preparatory school]] as a boarder in [[Bognor Regis]], following which he attended the leading [[nonconformist]] public school, [[Mill Hill School|Mill Hill]]. He left school at the age of 18 to join the family paint and preservatives business, Atlas Preservatives. He enlisted in the army shortly after the [[Munich Agreement|Munich crisis]], convinced war was imminent. During the [[World War II|Second World War]], he served in the 34th Searchlight ([[Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment]]) of the [[Royal Engineers]] before being promoted to the rank of [[major]]. Although, to his regret, he saw no real fighting, he was twice [[Mentioned in Despatches]], and in 1945 was appointed an [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]]. Leaving the forces in 1946, he returned to run the family business, his father having died, aged 57, on [[24 June]] [[1943]], when Thatcher was in [[Sicily]]. On [[28 March]], [[1942]] he married Margaret Doris Kempson, the daughter of Leonard Kempson, a businessman at [[Monken Hadley]]. The childless marriage ended in divorce, in 1948.<ref>ODNB</ref> She met someone else whilst Thatcher was away and married him later. In February 1949, while attending a Paint Trades Federation function in [[Dartford]], he met [[Margaret Thatcher|Margaret Roberts]], a [[chemist]] and newly-selected parliamentary candidate. They married on [[13 December]] [[1951]], and had twin children, [[Carol Thatcher|Carol]] and [[Mark Thatcher|Mark]], in 1953. Thatcher financed his wife's training as a [[barrister]] and a home in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]]; he also bought a large house in [[Lamberhurst]], [[Kent]] in 1965. His firm employed 200 people by 1957, but he sold it to [[Castrol]] on [[26 August]], [[1965]] after suffering a mild [[nervous breakdown]] in [[1964]]. He received a seat on Castrol's parent board, which he maintained when [[Burmah Oil Company Ltd.|Burmah Oil]] took it over in 1966. He retired from Burmah in June 1975, four months after his wife won the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] leadership election. In addition to being a director of Burmah, he was chairman of the Atlas Preservative Co, vice-chairman of Attwoods plc from 1983 to January 1994, a director of [[Quinton Hazell]] plc from 1968 to 1998, and a consultant to [[AMEC|Amec]] [[public limited company|plc]] and [[CSX]] Corp. He was also a non-executive director of [[Halfords]] in the mid-1980s. ==Public life and perceptions== Thatcher agreed with his wife on most political issues, though he was strongly against the [[death penalty]], calling it "absolutely awful" and "barbaric", while she favoured it. Denis Thatcher was fiercely anti-[[Trade Union]] and anti-[[socialist]], as was his wife. He later hated the [[BBC]], thinking it was biased against the Thatcher government. In an interview with Kirsten Cubitt in October 1970, he said "I don't pretend I am anything but an honest-to-God right-winger. Those are my views and I don't care who knows 'em"<ref>[[The Times]] - 5th October 1970</ref> The public perception of his character was formed chiefly from a series of spoof letters published in the [[Satire|satirical]] magazine ''[[Private Eye (magazine)|Private Eye]]'' in the 1980s{{Fact|date=December 2007}}. The "[[Dear Bill]]" column written by [[Richard Ingrams]] and [[John Wells (satirist)|John Wells]] after May 1979 took the form of a letter purported to be from Denis to his real life friend and golfing partner [[Bill Deedes]] (former editor of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''), detailing life at [[10 Downing Street|Number 10]]. The letters portrayed Denis Thatcher as a [[reactionary]] interested only in [[golf]] and [[gin]]. John Wells used the character portrayed in the letters, and created the stage play ''Anyone For Denis'' (also shown on television). Thatcher started to play along &mdash; [[Ulster Unionist]] [[David Burnside]] recalled a reception in Blackpool "to which Sir Denis came along with his minder and declared: "I don't know what reception I'm at, but for God's sake give me a [[gin and tonic]]". Thatcher refused press interviews and only made brief speeches. When he did speak to the press, he called Margaret "The Boss". One lapse, which he regretted for the ensuing controversy he felt was at his wife's expense, was in December 1979, when at a dinner of the London Society of Rugby Football Union Referees (of which he was treasurer, having refereed at a club level for many years) he made remarks criticising the sporting boycott of [[South Africa]]. Thatcher said, "We are a free people, playing an amateur game, and sure as hell we have the right to tour South Africa". He was known as an irreverent, good-natured man with a talent for friendship. Margaret Thatcher often acknowledged her husband's support. In her autobiography she wrote: "I could never have been Prime Minister for more than 11 years without Denis by my side." He saw his role as helping her survive the stress of the job, which he urged her to resign on the 10th anniversary of her becoming Prime Minister, in 1989, sensing that otherwise she would be forced out (as happened a year later). After his wife's third election victory in 1987, whilst watching his wife wave to the cheering crowds outside Downing Street, Thatcher said quietly to his daughter Carol, "In a year's time she will be so unpopular you won't believe it". In fact, this happened 12-18 months later than when he predicted, but was still accurate. In December 1990, it was announced that Denis Thatcher would be created a [[baronet]]<ref>{{LondonGazette|issue=52360|startpage=19066|date=[[11 December]] [[1990]]|accessdate=2008-02-28}}</ref> (the first since 1964). The award was [[London Gazette|gazetted]] in February 1991 as Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, of Scotney in the County of Kent.<ref>{{LondonGazette|issue=52443|startpage=1993|date=[[7 February]] [[1991]]|accessdate=2008-02-28}}</ref> This meant that his wife was entitled to be called Lady Thatcher whilst retaining her seat in the House of Commons, and was also a [[hereditary title]] that was to be inherited by their son Mark after Denis's death. It was the last British hereditary honour to be granted to anyone outside the royal family. However, Sir Denis Thatcher's wife was created a life peeress as Baroness Thatcher in her own right in [[1992]] after her retirement from the House of Commons. ==Death== On [[17 January]] [[2003]] Sir Denis Thatcher underwent a six-hour [[Coronary artery bypass surgery|heart bypass operation]]. He been complaining of breathlessness in the weeks before Christmas [[2002]] and the problem was spotted in early January. He left the hospital on [[28 January]] and appeared to have made a full recovery. He visited his son Mark, in [[South Africa]] in April but by the middle of June he complained of breathlessness once again. He was taken to hospital where [[pancreatic cancer]] was diagnosed, along with [[fluid]] in his lungs. He died on [[26 June]] at the age of 88 at [[Westminster]]'s Lister Hospital. His funeral, a cremation, was held on [[3 July]] [[2003]] at the chapel of the [[Chelsea Royal Hospital|Royal Hospital]] in [[Chelsea, London, England|Chelsea]]. On [[30 October]] his memorial service was held in [[Westminster Abbey]]. ==Publications== *Denis Thatcher's one public interview, which took place in October 2002, was released as a DVD, ''Married to Maggie'', after his death. In it he called John Major a ghastly Prime Minister and said it would have been a good thing if Major had lost the [[United Kingdom general election, 1992|1992 general election]]. He also said he thought his wife was the best Prime Minister since [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]], and revealed that he liked [[Raisa Gorbachev]], [[Nancy Reagan]] and [[Barbara Bush]] and that he wasn't sure where the [[Falkland Islands]] were until the invasion occurred in 1982. *''Below the Parapet - The Biography of Denis Thatcher'' by Carol Thatcher (his daughter). Published by Harper Collins in 1996. In it, Thatcher said that politics as a way of life did not appeal to him and that world leaders he personally got on with were [[George H. W. Bush]], [[Frederik Willem de Klerk|FW De Klerk]], [[King Hussein]] of [[Jordan]] and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], whilst he disliked [[Indira Gandhi]] and [[Shridath Ramphal|Sonny Ramphal]]. ==References== {{reflist}} {{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/90063?docPos=1|publisher=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|first=Christopher|last=Collins|title=‘Thatcher, Sir Denis, first baronet (1915–2003)’|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|month=January|year=2007|accessdate=2008-04-28|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/90063}} ==External links== * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3022450.stm BBC photo archive] {{s-start}} {{s-hon}} {{s-bef|before=[[Audrey Callaghan]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Spouses of the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom|Spouse of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]]|years=1979–1990}} {{s-aft|after=[[Norma Major]]}} {{s-reg|uk-bt}} {{s-new|creation}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Thatcher Baronets|Baronet]]'''<br />(of Scotney)|years='''1991–2003}} {{s-aft|after=[[Mark Thatcher|Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Bt.]]}} {{end}} {{Lifetime|1915|2003|Thatcher, Denis}} {{Margaret Thatcher}} [[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]] [[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:Old Millhillians]] [[Category:People from Lewisham]] [[Category:Spouses of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Royal Engineers officers]] [[de:Denis Thatcher]] [[sv:Denis Thatcher]] [[zh:丹尼斯·撒切尔]]