Margaret Thatcher

By: Rowan Blewett

Margaret Thatcher, born in 1925 in Grantham, England, was a rising star in British Conservative politics by 1969—sharp-minded, ambitious, and already gaining a reputation for her clarity, discipline, and firm belief in individual responsibility. Trained as a chemist and later a barrister, she entered Parliament in 1959 and, by 1969, was serving as Secretary of State for Education and Science in Edward Heath’s government-in-waiting. Though not yet party leader, she was widely seen as a woman of steel beneath the polite exterior—methodical, confident, and unafraid to speak her mind.

In a political world dominated by men, Thatcher stood out not for charm but for conviction. She believed in free markets, lower taxes, and self-reliance, and was deeply sceptical of socialism and trade union power. Calm, authoritative, and intensely focused, she was already shaping herself into a force to be reckoned with—a future prime minister in waiting.