Margaret Thatcher was the first female British Prime Minister. The leader of the Conservative Party, she won three consecutive terms of office (the only British PM in the twentieth century to do so), transformed the nation and at the time was the longest serving PM since 1827, governing from 1979 - 90. She was also the most divisive PM of the century, earning both great reverence but also deep hatred from the divided public, particularly for her treatment of trade unions.
Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13th 1925 in Grantham to Alfred Roberts, who was a grocer, lay preacher and local mayor. She developed an early interest in politics and, when studying chemistry at Oxford, became president of the Oxford Conservative Association (the Conservative being one of Britain’s main political parties). She graduated in 1946 and worked for four years as a research chemist, but she studied law when not in work and became a barrister in 1954. In 1951 she married Denis Thatcher, having two twin children by him.