Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, 1925-
Margaret Thatcher, nee Roberts, was born above a specialty grocery store owned by her father in the village of Grantham in middle England. The mellow town, sometimes called boring, had also been the home of Sir Isaac Newton. The Roberts family, a mellow family sometimes called boring, fit right in. Life there, however, was far from boring for Margaret.
For instance, he grocery store itself planted seeds that sprouted many years later in Margaret's political career. She sometimes worked in the shop, doing most any job at various times, and was particularly taken with the precise accounting of income and outgo.
The shop was not the only opportunity to expand Margaret's education outside of school. Her father, who,d had to leave school at age thirteen, thereby frustrating his dreams of becoming an educator, became a teacher to his own children. At mealtimes and at other family times, he asked questions of his children and debated the answers. From an early age, there were home reading lessons and obligatory trips to the library. Later on he took Margaret to hear "Extension Lectures" from the University of Nottingham, where there were talks and discussions about current and international affairs. If her father discovered that the school was not including all that he felt Margaret should learn, he taught it to her himself. She learned much of Walt Whitman's poetry this way. Mr. Thatcher also made sure that homework was completed each day. To fulfill her mother's educational plans for her, Margaret started taking piano lessons when she was five; she became quite good and won a number of competitions.
Around the time that she began piano lessons, her father became a local councillor, nominated by the Chamber of Trade, which was the beginning of a regular round of offices in the local government. He held the office of Chairman of the Borough Finance Committee and was later chosen as alderman. At the end of World War II he became Mayor of Grantham. In these offices, as in his home, his watchphrase was individual responsibility, and his passion was sound finance.
When Margaret was old enough to attend school, she carried a bag bulging with books and a mind bursting with questions. She fully lived up to her father's expectations. Although she was never shy about asking questions, she was generally quiet in class, and had, as some reported, "tediously impeccable" behavior, making her a model student who never seemed to lead with the wrong foot. Her expertise in this area was matched with her expertise as a player in field hockey.
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