Denis Thatcher

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Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt.

Denis Thatcher (right) greets U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan, 1988
Born 10 May 1915(1915-05-10)
London, England
Died 26 June 2003 (aged 88)
London, England
Nationality British
Education Mill Hill School
Occupation Businessman
Known for Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Term 4 May 1979 - 28 November 1990
Predecessor Audrey Callaghan
Successor Norma Major
Spouse Margaret Kempson (1942-48)
Margaret Thatcher (1951-2003)
Children Mark Thatcher, Carol Thatcher

Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was a businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, 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.

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[edit] Early life and work

At age eight he entered a preparatory school as a boarder in Bognor Regis, following which he attended the leading nonconformist public 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 crisis, convinced war was imminent.

During the 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 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.[1] 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 Roberts, a chemist and newly-selected parliamentary candidate, who became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom. They married on 13 December 1951, and had twin children, Carol and Mark, in 1953. 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"[2]

Thatcher financed his wife's training as a barrister and a home in 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 breakdown in 1964. He received a seat on Castrol's parent board, which he maintained when Burmah took it over in 1966. He retired from Burmah Oil in June 1975, four months after his wife won the Conservative Party leadership.

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 plc and CSX Corp. He was also a non-executive director of Halfords in the mid 1980s

[edit] Public life and perceptions

The public perception of his character was formed chiefly from a series of spoof letters published in the satirical magazine Private Eye in the 1980s[citation needed]. The "Dear Bill" column written by Richard Ingrams and 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 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 — 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[3] (the first since 1964). The award was gazetted in February 1991 as Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, of Scotney in the County of Kent.[4] 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.

[edit] Death

On 17 January 2003 Sir Denis Thatcher underwent a six-hour heart bypass operation. He had complained of breathlessness before Christmas 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 again taken to a 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 Royal Hospital in Chelsea. On 30 October his memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey.

[edit] 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 1992 general election. He also said he thought his wife was the best Prime Minister since 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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ ODNB
  2. ^ The Times - 5th October 1970
  3. ^ London Gazette: no. 52360, page 19066, 11 December 1990. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  4. ^ London Gazette: no. 52443, page 1993, 7 February 1991. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.

Collins, Christopher (January 2007). ‘Thatcher, Sir Denis, first baronet (1915–2003)’. Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/90063. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.

[edit] External links

Honorary titles
Preceded by
Audrey Callaghan		 Spouse of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1979–1990		 Succeeded by
Norma Major
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Scotney)
1991–2003		 Succeeded by
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Bt.

‹The template Lifetime is being considered for deletion.› 

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