What was Maggie like at Oxford?

70 years ago this year Margaret Roberts arrived in Oxford at the start of a journey in public life that finishes today with a fitting send-off at St Paul’s.

She spent four years studying Chemistry at Somerville under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin. Just as her student would later be the first female PM, Hodgkin was the first (and so far only) British woman to win a Nobel prize in science.

Maggie during her Chemistry degree

As a grammar school girl and, famously, a grocer’s daughter, she was aware life wouldn’t be as easy for her as it was for some of her more privileged contemporaries. She even asked friend Margaret Goodrich, “don’t you wish you could say you had been to Cheltenham?”.

Somerville’s present principal Dr Alice Prochaska told The Times: “The former Prime Minister was a shy and gauche provincial grammar school girl, very law-abiding and different from the Bullingdon Club, confident Oxford Tory politicians now.”

She was certainly frugal by nature.  In wartime Oxford she permitted herself a bath only once a week – and even then permitted herself only five inches of water.

She wore plain brown dresses and reportedly cut back on cigarettes so she could afford to by The Times.

The young Thatcher would wait until her final year for her first glass of wine or trip to a ball. She never had a boyfriend.

But politics was in her blood from an early stage: her father Alfred Roberts had been elected to the Grantham town council in 1927 and would become mayor in 1945.

The following year his daughter showed for the first time that she would not let her gender stand in the way of her political ambition, becoming the first woman to be President of the Oxford University Conservative Association.

OUCA may not have the best reputation for inclusiveness and equality today, but electing Miss Roberts was a remarkably progressive move in a time when women were still barred from debating in the Oxford Union (that would have to wait until 1953).

Matriculating in wartime Oxford (Photo: Somerville)

Her presidency itself was unremarkable but she demonstrated her administrative ability by organising “efficient” social events.

She remained Patron of the organisation up to her death. In an email to members, Returning Officer Jack Matthews paid tribute:

“Baroness Thatcher has inspired many of us to engage with politics and get involved with the Conservative Party.  I know we are all incredibly proud of her; as a former leader of our Association, our Party, and our Country”

However when she became prime minister, her university was remarkably hostile.  It denied her the honorary doctorate usually bestowed on leaders of the country in protest at what many academics thought were damaging educational policies.

She remained fond of Somerville, and the college was proud of its pioneering pupil who was an honorary fellow. In the 1990’s the Margaret Thatcher Centre was set up; in 2005 her portrait was unveiled.

Today the Margaret Thatcher Fund helps pupils from all backgrounds to get to Oxford, and according to Somerville, ‘honours the pioneering spirit of a remarkable Somervillian, a trailblazing woman and notable post-war leader’.

Unveiling her portrait at Somerville in 2005 (Photo: Somerville)