Long before she became Prime Minister, Margaret Hilda Roberts spent the 1950s building the foundations of a remarkable political career. She entered the decade as a young Oxford chemistry graduate with a job at J. Lyons and Co., where she worked on developing emulsifiers for food products like ice cream. Politics, however, was always her real ambition — shaped in part by her father’s involvement in local government in Grantham.
Before the February 1950 general election, the Conservative Party selected Margaret Roberts as their candidate for Dartford, Kent — a seat firmly held by Labour. At just 24, she was the youngest female candidate standing in that election. She didn’t win, but she campaigned hard and made a strong impression.
When another general election was called for October 1951, Roberts stood for Dartford again. She campaigned with the same energy, meeting voters across the constituency and sharpening her public speaking skills.
Her time campaigning in Kent brought more than political experience. She met Denis Thatcher, a businessman connected to the local Conservative association, through these activities. The two grew close quickly.
Margaret Roberts and Denis Thatcher married in London in December 1951. She wore a royal blue velvet dress trimmed with ostrich feathers. In August 1953, she gave birth to twins, Carol and Mark. That same year, she passed her Bar exams — having studied through her pregnancy — and was called to the Bar in early 1954, specializing in taxation law. Through the mid-to-late 1950s, she balanced motherhood with a practice as a tax barrister while continuing to seek a winnable parliamentary seat. In 1958, the Conservative association in Finchley, North London, selected her as their candidate. When the October 1959 general election arrived, she won decisively.
