Margaret Thatcher (1925- ) Britains first woman Prime Minister

The huge contribution of Margaret Thatcher to political life is well known, but the records held here at Lincolnshire Archives do throw light on some of the less well known aspects of her early life. Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in the flat above her fathers grocery shop at 1, North Parade, Grantham. She was the younger of the two daughters of Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. The elder daughter, Muriel, was four years older than Margaret. The flat above the shop was comparatively modest. A recent article in Lincolnshire Life magazine describes it as follows: The flat had only a small kitchen, no bathroom or running water and each bedroom merely had a washstand with large water jug and basin. There was no garden and the only toilet was in the back yard. Alfred Roberts was a stalwart layman of the Methodist Church, filling the offices of Local Preacher, Circuit Steward, and Class Leader at the Finkin Street Methodist Church in Grantham, where Margaret was baptised when she was two months old. (In later years, the profound influence of Methodism on their early lives was a topic of conversation between her and Nelson Mandela, who was also brought up as a Methodist.) In September 1930 Margaret Roberts started school at the Huntingtower Road Council School in Grantham; in 1936, just short of her eleventh birthday, she moved up to the Kesteven and Grantham Girls School. Alfred Roberts also had a strong belief in public service, which included membership of the Grantham Borough Council from 1927 (Mayor in 1945-46), service as a magistrate, presidency of the Grantham Chamber of Trade, directorship of the Grantham Building Society and the Grantham Trustee Savings Bank, governorship of the grammar schools and chairmanship of the Workers Educational Association. Life was not all duty, however, and in February 1932 Margarets father bought a piano from Messrs White and Sentance, piano dealers and music sellers of 28, St. Peters Hill, Grantham. Although the piano was second hand, it was still a quality instrument, costing the not inconsiderable sum of 28, 7 shillings. The minute books of the Finkin Street Methodist Church Sunday School reveal that Margaret Roberts became a proficient player. The minutes of 29 March 1940 include the following: Pianist. Miss Margaret Roberts who had been school pianist for several years was elected to the staff [of Sunday School teachers]. Later minutes of 6 July 1943 state that Miss Lancaster proposed & Mr. Booth seconded that Miss Evelyn Morris be asked to be pianist in the afternoon session, to take Miss Roberts place when she goes to College. The College in question was Somerville College, Oxford, from which she graduated with a degree in

chemistry in 1947, having become President of the Oxford University Conservative Association the previous year. Margaret Roberts married Denis Thatcher in 1951. Having had a family and qualified as a barrister in the 1950s, she became a Member of Parliament in 1959, Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970, Leader of Conservative Party in 1975, and was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. She became a Life Peer as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven in 1992.

Sources:
Grantham Methodist Circuit baptism register, 1914-1956 (Lincolnshire Archives: Meth/B/Grantham W/A/1/5) Roberts Food Stores headed notepaper, 1948 Lincolnshire Archives: Meth C/Grantham Signal Road/21/3) Photograph of 1, North Parade, Grantham during the time of Alfred Roberts immediate predecessor, Thomas Parker (Lincolnshire Archives: Pointer [unlisted]/photographs/1470) Extract from Messrs White and Sentances sales ledger, 1932-1953 (Lincolnshire Archives: Misc Don 1293/1) Extract from the Finkin Street Methodist Sunday School minute book, 19361953 (Lincolnshire Archives: Meth/C/Grantham, Finkin Street [unlisted] Photograph of Margaret Roberts (Lincolnshire Archives: Lincolnshire Life magazine, volume 46, number 9, December 2006)