Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on October 13, 1925, above her father's grocery shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Alfred Roberts was a self-made man, shopkeeper, lay Methodist preacher, town councillor, and he raised his daughter to believe in hard work, self-reliance, and the virtue of getting things done rather than waiting for others. She won a scholarship to Oxford to study chemistry, became the youngest woman candidate for Parliament in 1950, and eventually married Denis Thatcher, a successful businessman who gave her the financial security to pursue politics full-time. She qualified as a barrister, specialized in tax law, and entered Parliament in 1959. She served as Education Secretary under Edward Heath, where she earned the nickname 'Thatcher the Milk Snatcher' for ending free school milk, an early taste of the controversy that would define her career.