Posted: Thursday, June 26th, 2003 10:02 am
Sir Denis Thatcher, husband of former prime minister Lady Thatcher, died today.
The 88-year old former oil businessman passed away in the Lister Hospital, London, a spokesman for the family said. …
Although a non-political figure in public, Sir Denis was thought to harbour hard-right views. In 1984 he told the Swiss president at a dinner: “Keep Switzerland white.”
He married the then Margaret Hilda Roberts in 1951 after having seen wartime service, and went on to become a director of Castrol.
Famously keen as a golf addict, he was best known to the public in the 1980s through the fictional parody alter-ego in Private Eye’s “Dear Bill” spoof letters to his real-life friend Lord Bill Deedes, former editor of the Daily Telegraph. …
He was famed for what his daughter Carol described as his “copious” intake of gin, and would regularly hobnob with reporters when he accompanied his wife on official visits abroad.
Other high profile instances of Sir Denis’ attitudes often leaked out, including referring to “fuzzy wuzzies in Brixton” and complaining that India was “high on the buggeration factor”. …
Sir Denis’s death would be a great blow to Lady Thatcher, said Sir Bernard. “A great deal will have been lost in her life. “She’s not all that well in herself in terms of loss of memory. Therefore, I don’t think she’s going to find it easy to recover. …
Neil Kinnock calles his former opponenet’s spouse “a decent old cove. He was always very mellow — whether that was through drink, I don’t know”.
“He was also a first class rugby referee. He was a total Tory.” … Read full obituary