Denis Thatcher
Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD, CStJ (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was an English businessman and the husband of Margaret Thatcher, who served as the first female British prime minister from 1979 to 1990; thus he became the first male prime ministerial spouse.
SirDenis Thatcher
10 May 1915
26 June 2003 (aged 88)
Businessman
Spouse of the prime minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990)
United Kingdom
1938–1965
77306
- Second World War
()
Thatcher was granted the Thatcher baronetcy in 1990, the only baronetcy created since 1964, and remains the most recent commoner to have been awarded a hereditary title.
Early life[edit]
Denis Thatcher was born on 10 May 1915 at 26 Southbrook Road, Lee, Lewisham, London, as the first child of New Zealand-born British businessman Thomas Herbert "Jack" Thatcher[1] (15 October 1885[2] – 24 June 1943[3]) and Lilian Kathleen Bird (7 July 1889 – 25 October 1976).[1] At age eight, Denis entered a preparatory school in Bognor Regis as a boarder, following which he attended the nonconformist public school Mill Hill School in north London.[1] At school he excelled at cricket, being a left-handed batsman.[4]
Thatcher left Mill Hill School in 1933 and joined the family paint and preservatives business,[1] Atlas Preservatives.[5] He also studied accountancy to improve his grasp of business,[6] and in 1935 he was appointed works manager.[7] He joined the Territorial Army shortly after the Munich crisis, as he was convinced war was imminent[1] – a view reinforced by a visit he made to Nazi Germany with his father's business in 1937.[5]
War record[edit]
During the Second World War, Thatcher was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 34th Searchlight (Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment) of the Royal Engineers. He transferred to the Royal Artillery on 1 August 1940.[8] During the war he was promoted to war substantive captain and temporary major. He served throughout the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaign and was twice mentioned in dispatches, and in 1945 was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The first mention in dispatches came on 11 January 1945, for service in Italy,[9] and the second on 29 November 1945, again for Italian service.[10]
His MBE was gazetted on 20 September 1945,[11] and was awarded for his efforts in initiating and supporting Operation Goldflake, the transfer of I Canadian Corps from Italy to the north-west European theatre of operations. Thatcher was based in Marseille, attached to HQ 203 sub-area. In the recommendation for the MBE (dated 28 March 1945), his commanding officer wrote: "Maj. Thatcher set an outstanding example of energy, initiative and drive. He deserves most of the credit for [...] the excellence of the work done."[12]
Thatcher also received the approximate French equivalent of a mention when he was cited in orders at Corps d'Armée level for his efforts in promoting smooth relations between the Commonwealth military forces and the French civil and military authorities.[13] He was promoted to substantive lieutenant on 11 April 1945.[14] Demobilised in 1946, he returned to run the family business – his father having died (aged 57) on 24 June 1943, when Thatcher was in Sicily. Because of army commitments, Thatcher was unable to attend the funeral.[3]
He remained in the Territorial Army reserve of officers until reaching the age limit for service on 10 May 1965, when he retired, retaining the honorary rank of major.[15]
On 21 September 1982 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD) for his service.[16]
Profiles[edit]
Married to Maggie[edit]
Produced by his daughter Carol,[56] Thatcher's single public interview (which took place in October 2002) was made into a documentary film titled Married to Maggie,[57] broadcast after his death.[58] In it he revealed that the spouses he liked were Raisa Gorbacheva, Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush.[58] He called his wife's successor, John Major, "a ghastly prime minister", saying that "[i]t would have been a [...] very good thing" had he lost the 1992 general election. He added that he thought his wife was "the best prime minister since Churchill."[58]
Below the Parapet[edit]
Below the Parapet (1996) is the biography by his daughter Carol. In it, he said that politics as a profession or way of life did not appeal to him.[20] World leaders he got on with included George H. W. Bush,[59] F. W. de Klerk,[60] Hussein of Jordan[61] and Mikhail Gorbachev,[20] whilst he disliked Indira Gandhi and Sir Sonny Ramphal.[62] Thatcher admitted that he was not sure where the Falkland Islands were until they were invaded in 1982.[63]