THE film The Iron Lady has brought back memories of an evening in 1961 when I met Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Denis. On January 28 that year we met at a dinner in London at the House of Commons.
Margaret Thatcher had been elected MP for Finchley 16 months
earlier on October 8, 1959.
What I remember most about that night, though, was my meeting with Denis Thatcher. We sat next to each other at the same table throughout the meal. He was very pleasant and had lots to say on a variety of topics. After some time, he suddenly turned to me and asked, ``Now where are you from in New Zealand?''
``Well,'' I said, ``you've probably never heard of the place; it's called Wanganui.''
``Oh yes,'' he said, ``my father was born there and went to Wanganui Collegiate.''
When I returned to New Zealand in late 1961, I looked for the name Thatcher in the Wanganui Collegiate School Register. The only entry was for a Thomas Herbert Thatcher, who was at Collegiate from 1894 to 1897. I knew there was a Thatcher St at Castlecliff and soon realised it was named after Thomas Herbert's father, Thomas Thatcher.
I didn't think about the Thatcher connection with Wanganui again until the 1970s _ when Margaret Thatcher visited New Zealand in September 1972 as Secretary of State for Education and Science, and when she and Denis were here in September 1976, when she was Britain's leader of the opposition.
By the 1970s I was living in Wellington and was surprised when there seemed to be no mention of the Thatcher connection with New Zealand in the Wellington papers during the visits of 1972 and 1976.
After seeing The Iron Lady I began researching the Thatcher connection with Wanganui.
Two articles in the Wanganui Herald recorded the visits of 1972 and 1976.
The 1976 reference noted various comments Denis Thatcher made to reporters in London before leaving for New Zealand. Thatcher said he'd never been to New Zealand but regarded it as a second home. He spoke, too, about his strong links with Wanganui and said one of his major regrets was that he wouldn't have a chance to visit the city during his wife's visit.
He also said that as a true New Zealand descendant, rugby was his religion and among the clothes he was taking was a New Zealand Rugby Union tie. ``I wear it with pride,'' he told the reporters.
Much of my research into the Thatcher connection with Wanganui has stemmed from reading Below the Parapet: the Biography of Denis Thatcher. Written by Carol Thatcher, the daughter of Margaret and Denis, it was published in 1996. Carol was in Wanganui in January, 1995 undertaking research.
Thomas Thatcher Thomas Thatcher was born on May 10, 1848 at Uffington, Berkshire, England. He was the oldest of five children of John Thatcher, a farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Belcher. By 1871, Thomas was farming at Fernham, a hamlet near Uffington, and in 1876 he married Elizabeth Helen Dale at Kingston, Surrey. Their first child, Edith, was born in 1878.
Thatcher arrived in New Zealand in September, 1878 and by October had settled in Wanganui. In November, he became joint owner of the Bell Brewery with William Lingard. The partnership was dissolved in May 1879, and Thatcher took the malting side of the business into a new firm. In 1879 and in 1880, Thatcher is also recorded as playing football (rugby) in Wanganui.
In January, 1879, Thatcher's wife and daughter arrived in Wanganui from England, and in November Thomas and Elizabeth had a second daughter, Evelyn Grace. A third daughter, Mary Sophia, was born in March 1881. On December 27 that year, Elizabeth Thatcher died of pulmonary tuberculosis; she was buried in Heads Rd cemetery.
By 1882, Thatcher had erected a large new malt house in Glasgow St. At that stage he owned property in Wanganui valued at +pound+2500 and in Opunake valued at +pound+80. He also owned and farmed 670 acres at Brunswick valued at +pound+2691. Thatcher named the Brunswick property Fernham after the place he farmed near in Berkshire. He became well known for the stock he raised, especially for a flock of crossbred lincoln merino sheep. As a farmer, he supported the manufacture of an effective sheep dip and also a product used for preserving animal skins and hides. Both were developed by William Thomas Owen, a chemist who became a farmer in the 1860s at Whangaehu and later at the Featherstone property near Upokongaro.
By 1896, Thatcher had joined Owen and developed a weed killer that was tested ``with the most satisfactory results'' along the Castlecliff railway line and on the paths at the local cemetery.
In June 1885, Thatcher took his daughter, Mary Sophia, to England to live with his mother at Uffington. He returned to Wanganui in January 1886. While he was away, his son Thomas Herbert was born on October 15, 1885, to Margaret Ann Reid.
In the 1880s and '90s Thatcher was a member of three local government boards. He was on the Wanganui County Council Board from 1881 to 1883 and chaired the board in 1882. He was later on the Waitotara County Council Board from 1887 until 1890, when he failed to be re-elected. In 1882 he was on the Wanganui Harbour Board as the representative of the Wanganui County Council. It was then that the Harbour Board included the name Thatcher as the name of a street in the proposed township of Castlecliff. Thatcher also became an elected member of the Harbour Board in 1884-85 and 1887-88 and again in 1889 until he lost his seat in 1895. He was the board chairman from 1891 to 1895.
Thatcher spent most of 1896 in England. He left New Zealand in February and arrived back in Wellington on October 19. Two days later, on October 21, he married Margaret Ann Reid at the Wellington Registrar's Office. While in England, Thatcher procured a mounted badger and sent it as a gift to the Wanganui Public Museum.
During his time in Wanganui, Thatcher was involved with several clubs and organisations. From December 1878 he was a member of the Wanganui Jockey Club and in 1881 he was on a committee to form the Wanganui Hunt Club. He was also involved with the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, the Acclimatisation Society, St John's Workingmen's Club and Heads Railway Company.
In August 1897, Thatcher and his family left Wanganui. In December, Thatcher's malt house in Glasgow St was destroyed by fire along with the adjoining building on the corner of Victoria Ave that housed the St John's Workingmen's Club. Thatcher owned both buildings.
Back in England, Thatcher set up the Atlas Preservative Company at Deptford, Kent, near Greenwich on the Thames. The company manufactured a chemical wood preservative and weed killer.
By March 1907 the family had shifted to Purley, Surrey. In 1907 the Atlas Preservative Company was also incorporated as a limited company.
According to Carol Thatcher, Thomas Thatcher had always intended to return to New Zealand, but ``this plan was sabotaged by declining health''. In 1911 he had a nervous breakdown and on September 8 died at the Croydon Mental Hospital, aged 63. Thatcher had been baptised and brought up an Anglican. His daughters Evelyn Grace and Mary Sophia were also baptised Anglicans at Christ Church, Wanganui. Carol Thatcher points out, however, that by the time Thatcher made his final will he had ``long been a passionate agnostic''.-->-->-->
