MARGARET ROBERTS THATCHER - UNITED KINGDOM

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06239533
• 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: September 21, 1983

Approved for Release: 2014/10/24 006239533
Margaret Roberts THATCHER UNITED KINGDOM
Prime Minister
(since May 1979)
Addressed as:
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 the economic revival of
Great Britain. In her public comments 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.
The daughter of a grocer and a seamstress, Thatcher 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 positions during her career, including those of joint parliamentary secretary to
the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance (1961-64), Secretary of State for
Education and Science (1970-74), and shadow deputy chancellor of the exchequer (1974-75).
Thatcher visited the United States in 1967 on a Foreign Leader Grant. On later trips she
met with Presidents Gerald Ford (1975) and Jimmy Carter (1977, 1979). She renewed an
acquaintance with President Ronald Reagan, whom she has known for several years, on a
state visit to Washington in February 1981. In June 1982 Thatcher addressed the UN
Special Session on Disarmament in New York and then traveled to Washington, where she
again met with President Reagan. In January 1983 she became the first Prime Minister in
British history to visit the Falkland Islands. In May she attended the Economic Summit in
Williamsburg.
Thatcher, 57, enjoys listening to the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin and
reading detective stories, historical novels, and biographies. Her husband, Denis, is a retired
oil company executive. The Thatchers have 30-year-old twins, Mark and Carol.
CR M 83-15042
21 September 1983
Approved for Release: 2014/10/24 006239533