Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died of a stroke, on Monday. She was eighty-seven. As the news crossed the world, flags across the former British empire were dropped to half mast in respect for the Iron Lady. Words of mourning were sent from almost every country in the world, and her name trended across the internet.
Margaret Roberts was born on October 13, 1925, to a father who owned a grocery store and was a Methodist preacher. His influence would guide through her whole life.
Studying chemistry at Sommerville College, Oxford she would become president of the Oxford University Conservative Association. After graduating she became more and more involved in the political world.
The 50's were a big decade for her. 1950 saw her begin to campaign for a seat in Parliament. She was not just the only female candidate, but at the age of twenty-four was the youngest conservative, ever. In 1951, she began studying for the bar and married Denis Thatcher. 1953 saw the birth of her twins and her passing of the bar. Then, in 1959, she achieved her first election.
By 1975, she had become the first female head of a major British political party. Talk grew of her becoming the first female Prime Minister, but she remained sure that she would not live to see the first one. Then in 1979 it happened, Margaret Thatcher was elected to become the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain.
As Prime Minister her policies were initially very unpopular, and by 1971 her approval rating was the lowest of any PM up til that time, at twenty-five percent. Then came the war. On
April 2, 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Thatcher's swift reaction not only won the war, on June 14, but saw her government gain popularity. They used it in 1983 to win a general election, in a landslide.
Her government would face the challenge of striking miners, but the government proved the stronger in the battle of wills. She would personally survive an attack on her life on October 12, 1984, when the IRA bombed a hotel in Brighton. Thatcher would eventually be removed from office, in 1990 after fighting to stop the unification of Europe.
In 1995, she was granted the title of Baroness of Kesteven, which granted her a permanent seat in the House of Lords. Her health began to fail in 2001, when she suffered her first stroke. Then in 2003, her husband died, at the age of eighty-eight. By 2008, dementia was affecting her short term memory and she withdrew from public life.
Britain is burying her with the highest honors possible of a non member of the direct royal family. Only the Queen Mother and Princess Di have been afforded the same level of funeral, that is planned.
Margaret Thatcher will long be remembered as a champion of conservative politics. Her friendships with US President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev helped shape the current world order.
