Margaret Thatcher the United Kingdom; despite the passage of time, debate over the complicated legacy of Thatcherism persists. Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925, in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her parents were Alfred Roberts (1892–1970), from Northamptonshire, and Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson, 1888–1960), from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops. In 1938, prior to the Second World War, the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had escaped Nazi Germany. Margaret, with her pen-friending elder sister Muriel, saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager's journey. Alfred Roberts
Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher who disagreed with her would admire her strength of character, her convictions, her view of Britain's place in the world and her contribution to British national life. Scottish National Party leader and First Minister Alex Salmond acknowledged that "Margaret Thatcher was a truly formidable prime minister whose policies defined a political generation". Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, while expressing sympathy to her family, criticised her policies' effects on Wales. Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas voiced regret that, although Thatcher was the first female prime minister, "she did little for women either inside or outside the House of Commons". UKIP