‘Faithful partner’ Denis Thatcher dies aged 88

DENIS THATCHER, husband of Margaret Thatcher and her faithful consort throughout her premiership, died yesterday in the Lister Hospital, London. He was 88.

His family were with him at his bedside when he died.

Denis has been described as "a world-class chauvinist married to the supreme symbol of female equality".

But that would wrongly imply that he was a hard, uncompromising and stern individual. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

He was an extremely attentive, protective and loving husband. Never once did he express or feel the slightest degree of jealousy or irritation at the fact that he was very much in public terms anyway the also-ran in their marriage.

He was a bitter opponent of political correctness and refused to alter his raucous and sometimes cheerfully irreverent style to satisfy those who were hell-bent on developing a PC culture.

Denis was a regular speaker at rugby club dinners and used to retail jokes which would have left the politically correct lobby aghast if they had heard them.

The jokes, which always went down well, were "sexist" and some would probably be described as "racist".

And although left-wing Labour MPs used to react with horror when the comments of some of his highly entertaining speeches leaked out into the public domain, he remained unabashed and never changed his style on that account.

Denis, whose business acumen made him a millionaire, retired from full-time business in 1975 with a parting gift of a Rolls-Royce the year in which his wife won the leadership of the Conservative Party.

He still retained a number of corporate directorships and, very much unlike Margaret, he was "clubbable", regularly "toying with a tincture" with his friends, at watering holes such as Lord's Taverners or the Dulwich and Sydenham Golf Club.

But his protective instinct was highly developed. During the Falklands conflict, when his wife who wore black throughout was tense, anxious and upset as "our boys" were dying on the field of battle, he rarely left her side.

It was like that on the campaign trail, too.

He could always be guaranteed to provide a stream of "hear, hears" throughout her speeches, even if he was not particularly listening.

Margaret Thatcher once said of him: "He never falls asleep and always claps in the right places."

He was extremely dutiful in accompanying his wife on most of her official journeys abroad, although he plainly preferred to travel west rather than east.

Sometimes he had great trouble in not demonstrating his impatience when he was caught in a situation in which he was not allowed to smoke or where he was trapped, unable to move, during an absurdly long speech.

Once, in the stifling heat of Blantyre, Denis almost exploded in silent agony as the then Life President of Malawi, Dr Hastings Banda, droned on for hours, until well after midnight, with no one daring to leave until he had sat down.

Once he famously made an excuse to avoid one of his wife's most notable trips to Moscow to see Mikhail Gorbachev so that he did not have to spend five days being hosted by the then Soviet leader's wife Raisa, whom he regarded as dogmatic and bossy.

During those visits he did attend, he used to spend much time at the back of the aircraft, usually the ageing Royal Air Force VC 10s, drinking and gossiping with reporters.

Although he never gave interviews or even quotes to newspapers, he was entirely at home with Fleet Street types, who were normally irreverent, jovial, bibulous and companionable like himself.

Sometimes he would adopt a style of mock-military language, with comments like "Better put that question to the GOC (General Officer Commanding)", namely his wife.

Once a daring reporter asked him on one of these eventful flights: "Mr Thatcher, who really wears the trousers in your house?" After a pause, he replied: "I do. I wear the trousers. And I wash and iron them, too."

On another occasion, asked whether he and the prime minister had separate bank accounts. He replied: "God yes, and separate beds, too."

Denis was also gifted at sizing up people, unlike his wife who occasionally mistook charm for talent.

The late Lord Whitelaw, a former deputy prime minister, once summed up the Thatchers' relationship perfectly.

"Sometimes she does not like what he tells her, but she knows he is totally on her side."

After heart surgery last January, he returned to hospital after feeling unwell two weeks ago. Margaret Thatcher and their children Mark and Carol were at his bedside when he died.