Editing Margaret Thatcher (section)

==Early life and education==
{{Overflow|
{{wikitable| align=center
 |{{Multiple image
  |align=center
  |total_width=580
  |header=Birthplace in Grantham
  |image1=Maison natale de Margaret Thatcher, Grantham.JPG
  |alt1=The corner of a terraced suburban street. The lower storey is a corner shop, now advertising as a chiropractic clinic. The building is two storeys high, with some parts three storeys high. It was formerly Alfred Roberts's shop.
  |caption1=2009 photograph of her father's former shop<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1062417 |grade=II |access-date=7 August 2022 |location=Lincolnshire}}</ref>
  |image2=Plaque, maison natale de Margaret Thatcher.JPG
  |alt2=A plaque reading "Birth place of the Rt.Hon. Margaret Thatcher, M.P. First woman prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
  |caption2=Commemorative plaque<ref>{{Open Plaques |10728 |access-date=18 March 2017}}</ref>
  |footer=Margaret and her elder sister were raised in the bottom of two flats on North Parade.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=3}} }}
}}}}

=== Family and childhood (1925–1943) ===
Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13&nbsp;October 1925 in [[Grantham]], Lincolnshire. Her parents were [[Alfred Roberts]] (1892–1970), from Northamptonshire, and Beatrice Ethel Stephenson (1888–1960), from Lincolnshire.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=1}} Her father's maternal grandmother, Catherine Sullivan, was born in [[County Kerry]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Ireland]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Sullivan |first=Majella |date=10 April 2013 |title=Margaret Thatcher's Irish roots lie in Co Kerry |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/margaret-thatchers-irish-roots-lie-in-co-kerry-29185669.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803171312/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/margaret-thatchers-irish-roots-lie-in-co-kerry-29185669.html |archive-date=3 August 2020 |access-date=18 July 2020 |work=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref>

Roberts spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned a [[tobacconist]]'s and a grocery shop. In 1938, [[Events preceding World War II in Europe|before the Second World War]], the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had [[Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe in the United Kingdom|escaped Nazi Germany]]. With her {{wikt-lang|en|penfriend|pen-friending|i=-}} elder sister Muriel, Margaret saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager's journey.{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|pp=38–39}}

Alfred was an [[alderman]] and a [[Methodist local preacher]].{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=8}} He brought up his daughter as a strict [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodist]],<ref name="Johnson">{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=Maureen |date=28 May 1988 |title=Bible-Quoting Thatcher Stirs Furious Debate |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> attending the [[Finkin Street Methodist Church]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Filby |first=Eliza |date=31 October 2015 |title=God and Mrs. Thatcher: The Battle for Britain's Soul |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/margaret-thatcher-christian-methodism/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212034043/https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/margaret-thatcher-christian-methodism/ |archive-date=12 December 2019 |access-date=21 April 2018 |work=[[National Review]]}}</ref> but Margaret was more sceptical; the future scientist told a friend that she could not believe in [[angel]]s, having calculated that they needed a [[breastbone]] {{convert|6|feet}} long to support wings.{{r|Oxford1}} Alfred came from a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] family but stood (as was then customary in local government) as an [[Independent politician|Independent]]. He served as Mayor of Grantham from 1945 to 1946 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=8}}

[[File:Margaret Thatcher aos 13 anos de idade.jpg|alt=Margaret Roberts, 13, in a black-and-white portrait photograph|thumb|upright|left|1938–39 portrait, aged 13]]

Roberts attended [[Huntingtower Road Primary School]] and won a scholarship to [[Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School]], a grammar school.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=5}} Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=6|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2pp=21–22}} She was [[head girl]] in 1942–43,<ref>{{Cite web |title=School aims |url=http://www.kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk/kg/about_school/school_aims |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128200852/http://kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk/kg/about_school/school_aims |archive-date=28 January 2013 |access-date=9 April 2013 |publisher=Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School}}</ref> and outside school, while the Second World War was ongoing, she voluntarily worked as a [[fire watcher]] in the local [[ARP service]].{{sfnp|Moore|2019|page=929}} Other students thought of Roberts as the "star scientist", although mistaken advice regarding cleaning ink from [[parquetry]] almost caused [[chlorine gas poisoning]]. In her [[sixth form|upper sixth year]], Roberts was accepted for a scholarship to study chemistry at [[Somerville College, Oxford]], a women's college, starting in 1944. After another candidate withdrew, Roberts entered Oxford in October 1943.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=12|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=23}}{{r|Oxford1}}

===Oxford (1943–1947)===
[[File:Somerville College.jpg|alt=The Hall and Maitland Building of Somerville College, Oxford, in 2006|thumb|upright|Roberts studied chemistry at [[Somerville College]] (''pictured''{{--)}} from 1943 to 1947.]]

Following her arrival at Oxford, Roberts began studies under [[X-ray crystallographer]] [[Dorothy Hodgkin]], the tutor in chemistry for Somerville College since 1934.{{sfnmp|1a1=Blundell|1y=2008|1pp=25–27|2a1=Beckett|2y=2006|2p=16|3a1=Agar|3y=2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-10 |title=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin |url=https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/eminent/dorothy-crowfoot-hodgkin/ |access-date=2024-07-25 |publisher=Somerville College, Oxford |language=en-GB}}</ref> Hodgkin considered Roberts a "good" student, and later recalled: "One could always rely on her producing a sensible, well-read essay."{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} She opted to read for a classified [[honours degree]], entailing an additional year of supervised research.{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} As her thesis supervisor, Hodgkin assigned Roberts to work with [[Gerhard Schmidt (crystallographer)|Gerhard Schmidt]], a researcher in Hodgkin's lab, to determine the structure of the antibiotic [[peptide]] [[gramicidin S]].{{sfnmp|1a1=Campbell|1y=2000|1p=65|2a1=Agar|2y=2022}} Although the research made some progress, the peptide's structure proved more complex than anticipated, and Schmidt would only determine its full structure much later; Roberts (by then Thatcher) learned this in the 1960s while visiting the [[Weizmann Institute]], where her former research partner was then working.{{sfnp|Agar|2022}}

Roberts graduated in 1947 with a [[British undergraduate degree classification|second-class honours degree]] in chemistry, and in 1950 also received the degree of [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|Master of Arts]] (as an Oxford BA, she was entitled to the degree 21 terms after her [[Matriculation#United Kingdom|matriculation]]).<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Whittaker |first1=Freddie |last2=Waite |first2=Debbie |last3=Culliford |first3=Elizabeth |name-list-style=amp |date=9 April 2013 |title=Thatcher: college will honour its former student |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10341124.thatcher-college-will-honour-former-student |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028113352/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10341124.thatcher-college-will-honour-former-student/ |archive-date=28 October 2021 |access-date=26 October 2021 |work=Oxford Mail}}</ref> Although Hodgkin would later be critical of her former student's politics, they continued to correspond into the 1980s, and Roberts in her memoirs would describe her mentor as "ever-helpful", "a brilliant scientist and a gifted teacher".{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} As prime minister, she would keep a portrait of Hodgkin at [[10 Downing Street]].{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} Later in life, she was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister.<ref name="runciman20130606">{{Cite news |last=Runciman |first=David |author-link=David Runciman |date=6 June 2013 |title=Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n11/david-runciman/rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190309071240/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n11/david-runciman/rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat |archive-date=9 March 2019 |access-date=11 June 2013 |work=[[London Review of Books]]}}</ref> While prime minister, she attempted to preserve Somerville as a women's college.<ref name="bowcott20161230">{{Cite news |last=Bowcott |first=Owen |date=30 December 2016 |title=Thatcher fought to preserve women-only Oxford college |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/thatcher-fought-to-preserve-women-only-oxford-college-somerville |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101004346/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/thatcher-fought-to-preserve-women-only-oxford-college-somerville?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-2 |archive-date=1 January 2017 |access-date=31 December 2016 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Twice a week outside study, she worked in a local forces canteen.{{sfnp|Dougill|1987|page=4}}

During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude.<ref name="Oxford1">{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Moore, Baron Moore of Etchingham |date=19 April 2013 |title=A side of Margaret Thatcher we've never seen |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10006410/A-side-of-Margaret-Thatcher-weve-never-seen.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420214300/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10006410/A-side-of-Margaret-Thatcher-weve-never-seen.html |archive-date=20 April 2018 |access-date=25 July 2017 |work=The Telegraph |ref=none}}</ref> Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That's probably what interested me. She was good at general subjects".{{r|Oxford1}}<ref name="Bray">{{Cite news |date=5 August 2014 |title=Tony Bray – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11013968/Tony-Bray-obituary.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190205025842/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11013968/Tony-Bray-obituary.html |archive-date=5 February 2019 |access-date=25 July 2017 |work=The Telegraph}}</ref>

She was a member of [[Wesley Memorial Church]], became a [[lay preacher]] and joined the John Wesley Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A short history of the John Wesley Society |url=https://www.wesleysoxford.org.uk/topics/john-wesley-society/a-short-history-of-the-john-wesley-society |access-date=28 February 2025 |website=Wesleys Oxford}}</ref><ref name="Filby" /> She also attended [[Somerville College Chapel]] and [[University Church of St Mary the Virgin|St&nbsp;Mary's]].<ref name="Filby" />

Roberts's coursework involved subjects beyond chemistry{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=47}} as she was already contemplating an entry into law and politics.<ref name="lecher20130408">{{Cite web |last=Lecher |first=Colin |date=8 April 2013 |title=How Thatcher The Chemist Helped Make Thatcher The Politician |url=http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217043947/http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died |archive-date=17 February 2017 |access-date=22 November 2014 |magazine=[[Popular Science]]}}</ref> Her enthusiasm for politics as a girl made Bray think of her as "unusual" and her parents as "slightly austere" and "very proper".{{r|Oxford1}}{{r|Bray}} Roberts became President of the [[Oxford University Conservative Association]] in 1946.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1pp=20–21|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=28}} She was influenced at university by political works such as [[Friedrich Hayek]]'s ''[[The Road to Serfdom]]'' (1944),{{sfnp|Blundell|2008|p=30}} which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=17}}

===Post-Oxford career (1947–1951)===
After graduating, Roberts secured a position as a research chemist for British Xylonite ([[BX Plastics]]) following a series of interviews arranged by Oxford; she subsequently moved to [[Colchester]] in Essex to work at the firm.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=17|2a1=Agar|2y=2011}} Little is known about her brief time there.{{sfnp|Agar|2011}} By her own account, she was initially enthusiastic about the position, as she had been intended to function as a personal assistant to the company's head of research and development, providing opportunities to learn about [[operations management]]: "But on my arrival it was decided that there was not enough to do in that capacity."{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} Instead, she seems to have researched methods of attaching [[polyvinyl chloride]] (PVC) to metals.{{sfnp|Agar|2011}} While with the firm, she joined the [[Association of Scientific Workers]].{{sfnp|Agar|2011}} In 1948, she applied for a job at [[Imperial Chemical Industries]] (ICI) but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated".<ref name="BBC2013">{{Cite news |date=8 April 2013 |title=In quotes: Margaret Thatcher |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10377842 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408090853/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10377842 |archive-date=8 April 2019 |access-date=12 April 2013 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Jon Agar in ''[[Notes and Records]]'' argues that her understanding of modern scientific research later impacted her views as prime minister.{{sfnp|Agar|2011}}

Roberts joined the local [[Conservative Association]] and attended the party conference at [[Llandudno]], Wales, in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=22}}  Meanwhile, she became a high-ranking affiliate of the [[Vermin Club]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Charles |date=5 February 2009 |title=Golly: now we know what's truly offensive |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/4520977/Golly-now-we-know-whats-truly-offensive.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190205043254/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/4520977/Golly-now-we-know-whats-truly-offensive.html |archive-date=5 February 2019 |access-date=29 April 2017 |work=The Telegraph}}</ref><ref name="Vermin">{{Cite magazine |last=J.C. |date=21 October 2012 |title=Gaffe-ology: why Mitchell had to go |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/10/political-crises |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021232133/https://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/10/political-crises |archive-date=21 October 2019 |access-date=29 April 2017 |magazine=[[The Economist]] |quote=In 1948 Aneurin Bevan called the Conservative Party 'lower than vermin' [...] The Tories embraced the phrase; some formed the Vermin Club in response (Margaret Thatcher was a member).}}</ref> a group of grassroots Conservatives formed in response to a derogatory comment made by [[Aneurin Bevan]].{{r|Vermin}} One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the [[Dartford]] Conservative Association in [[Kent]], who were looking for candidates.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=22}} Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the party's approved list; she was selected in January 1950 (aged 24) and added to the approved list [[wikt:post ante|''post ante'']].{{sfnp|Blundell|2008|p=36}}

At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949, she met divorcé [[Denis Thatcher]], a successful and wealthy businessman, who drove her to her Essex train.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=22|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=36}} After their first meeting, she described him to Muriel as "not a very attractive creature – very reserved but quite nice".{{r|Oxford1}} In preparation for the election, Roberts moved to Dartford, while she supported herself by working as a research chemist for [[J. Lyons and Co.]] in [[Hammersmith]], reportedly as part of a team developing [[emulsifier]]s for [[ice cream]].{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=22|2a1=''New Scientist''|2y=1983}} As the work was more theoretical in nature than during her prior role with BX Plastics, Roberts found it "more satisfying".{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} While at Lyons, she worked under the supervision of Hans Jellinek, who headed the company's physical chemistry section.{{sfnmp|1a1=Agar|1y=2022|2a1=Jellinek|2y=1979}} Jellinek assigned her to research the [[saponification]] of α-monostearin ([[glycerol monostearate]]), which has properties as an emulsifier, stabiliser and food preservative. Agar has noted the research may have been connected with the emulsification of ice cream, but only as a possibility.{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} In September 1951, their research was published in the ''[[Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture]]'', a recently launched publication of the [[Society of Chemical Industry]],{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} as "The saponification of α-monostearin in a monolayer".{{sfnp|Jellinek|Roberts|1951}} This would be Roberts's sole scientific publication.{{sfnp|Agar|2022}} In 1979, following his former assistant's election as prime minister, Jellinek, by then a professor of physical chemistry at [[Clarkson University]] in the United States, said she had done "a very good job" on the project, "showing great determination".{{sfnp|Jellinek|1979}} She sent Jellinek a congratulatory letter upon his retirement in 1984, and another letter shortly before his death two years later.{{sfnp|Kerker|1987}}

Roberts married at [[Wesley's Chapel]] and her children were baptised there,<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Death of a Member: Baroness Thatcher |house=House of Lords |date=10 April 2013 |volume=744 |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2013-04-10/debates/1304101000196/DeathOfAMemberBaronessThatcher |page=1154 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> but she and her husband began attending [[Church of England]] services and would later convert to [[Anglicanism]].<ref name="Belz">{{Cite news |last=Belz |first=Mindy |date=4 May 2013 |title=Weather maker |url=https://world.wng.org/2013/04/weather_maker |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203055950/https://world.wng.org/2013/04/weather_maker |archive-date=3 February 2019 |access-date=10 January 2017 |work=[[World (magazine)|World]]}}</ref><ref name="Filby">{{Cite news |last=Filby |first=Eliza |date=14 April 2013 |title=Margaret Thatcher: her unswerving faith shaped by her father |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9992424/Margaret-Thatcher-her-unswerving-faith-shaped-by-her-father.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190205050323/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9992424/Margaret-Thatcher-her-unswerving-faith-shaped-by-her-father.html |archive-date=5 February 2019 |access-date=10 January 2017 |work=The Telegraph}}</ref>