MARGARET ROBERTS THATCHER - UNITED KINGDOM

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06239539
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2016
• Case Number: F-2014-01469
• Publication Date: April 14, 1987

Approved for Release: 2014/10/24 006239539
Margaret Roberts THATCHER
Prime Minister (since May 1979)
Addressed as: Madam Prime Minister
Leader of the Conservative Party since 1975,
Margaret Thatcher is the first woman ever to serve
as prime minister of Britain or of any European
country. She is a self-proclaimed crusader for free
enterprise, free trade, and economic revival. She
has frequently declared her support for a strong
NATO, an independent British nuclear deterrent,
and the need for balanced and verifiable arms
control measures. In the spring of 1987 Thatcher
made an official visit to Moscow, the first British
Prime Minister to do so in more than a decade.
The daughter of a grocer and a seamstress,
Thatcher was born on 13 October 1925. She won a scholarship to Somerville College,
Oxford, and graduated with honors in chemistry in 1947. While there she was president of
the University Conservative Association. After working for four years as a research chemist
in an industrial firm, she began to study law, specializing in tax legislation and patents. A
member of Parliament since 1959, Thatcher has held several important government and
party positions, including those of Secretary of State for Education and Science (1970-74)
and shadow deputy chancellor of the exchequer (1974-75).
UNITED KINGDOM
Thatcher enjoys listening to Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin and reading detective
stories, historical novels, and biographies. Her husband, Denis, is a retired oil company
executive. The Thatchers have twins, Mark and Carol.
LDA M 87-11643
14 April 1987
Approved for Release: 2014/10/24 006239539