Her visit is part of the former Great Names at Hamilton series, recently renamed the "Sacerdote Great Names Series at Hamilton" in recognition of a significant gift from the family of Alex Sacerdote, a 1994 Hamilton graduate.
Lady Thatcher, former Conservative Member of Parliament for Barnet, Finchley, was appointed Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service on May 4, 1979, following the success of the Conservative Party in the General Election of the previous day. When the Conservative Party subsequently won the General Elections in 1983 and 1987, Lady Thatcher became the first British Prime Minister this century to contest successfully three consecutive general elections. She resigned on November 28, 1990. In December 1990, her Majesty the Queen awarded her the Order of Merit. In June 1992 Lady Thatcher was elected to the House of Lords to become Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. In April 1995, she was made a Member of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
Lady Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925, the daughter of a grocer who was active in local politics. She was educated at Kesteven and Grantham Girl's High School, and won a bursary to Somerville College, Oxford, where she obtained a degree in Natural Science. She is also a Master of Arts of Oxford University. In June 1983, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.
Upon leaving Oxford, she worked for four years as a research chemist for an industrial firm, reading for the bar in her spare time. She was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1954, and practiced as a barrister, specializing in taxation law.
While an undergraduate, she was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association. As Miss Margaret Roberts, she contested two parliamentary elections of the Conservative Party, in 1950 and 1951, before being elected (after her marriage) to the House of Commons in 1959.
Lady Thatcher's first ministerial appointment came in 1961, when she became a parliamentary Secretary to the then Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, remaining in this position until the change of Government in 1964. From 1964 to 1970, while the Conservatives were in opposition, she was a front-bench spokesman for her party, and from 1967, a member of the Shadow Cabinet. When the Conservatives returned to office in June 1970, she was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science and was made a Privy Counsellor. After the general election in 1974, she was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet and became Opposition front-bench spokesman, first on the environment, and later on treasury matters. She was elected Leader of the Conservative Party and thus Leader of the Opposition in February 1975.
Lady Thatcher's husband, Sir Denis Thatcher, whom she married in 1951, served in the Second World War as a Major in the Royal Artillery. He was made a Baronet in 1990. Sir Denis and Lady Thatcher have a twin son and daughter, Mark and Carol, who were born in 1953.
Lady Thatcher is Chancellor at Buckingham University, England, and Chancellor of William and Mary College. She has received many awards and honorary degrees, including the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, presented in October 1998. Lady Thatcher is patron of a number of charities and has established her own foundation.
Her books include The Downing Street Years (1993); The Path to Power (1995); and, Margaret Thatcher – The Collected Speeches (1998).
Previous Great Names at Hamilton speakers include Colin Powell, Mary Matalin and James Carville, Elie Wiesel and F.W. deKlerk. In 1998, jazz and blues singer/musician B.B. King was the first artist to appear as part of the series.
