Marriages
On 28 March 1942, Thatcher married Margaret Doris Kempson (23 January 1918 – 8 June 1996), the daughter of Leonard Kempson, a businessman, at St. Mary's Church, Monken Hadley. They had met at an officers' dance at Grosvenor House the year before.
Although initially very happy, Thatcher and his first wife never lived together. Their married life became confined to snatched weekends and irregular leaves as Thatcher was often abroad during the war. When Thatcher returned to England after being demobilised in 1946, his wife told him she had met someone else and wanted a divorce. Their childless marriage ended in the first weeks of 1948. Kempson married Sir (Alfred) Howard Whitby Hickman, 3rd Baronet (1920–1979) on 24 January the same year. Thatcher was so traumatised by the event that he completely refused to talk about his first marriage or the separation, even to his daughter, as she states in her 1995 biography of him. Thatcher's two children found out about his first marriage only in February 1976 (by which time their mother, Margaret Hilda Thatcher, was leader of the Conservative Party) and only when the media revealed it.
In February 1949, at a Paint Trades Federation function in Dartford, he met Margaret Roberts, a chemist and newly-selected parliamentary candidate. They married on 13 December 1951, at Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London: the Roberts were Methodists.
They had twin children, Carol and Mark, who were born on 15 August 1953.
Read more about this topic: Denis Thatcher
Famous quotes containing the word marriages:
“Good marriages are made in heaven. Or some such place.”
—Robert Bolt (1924–1995)
“The happiest two-job marriages I saw during my research were ones in which men and women shared the housework and parenting. What couples called good communication often meant that they were good at saying thanks to one another for small aspects of taking care of the family. Making it to the school play, helping a child read, cooking dinner in good spirit, remembering the grocery list,... these were silver and gold of the marital exchange.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“Women have entered the work force . . . partly to express their feelings of self-worth . . . partly because today many families would not survive without two incomes, partly because they are not at all sure their marriages will last. The day of the husband as permanent meal-ticket is over, a fact most women recognize, however they feel about “women’s liberation.””
—Robert Neelly Bellah (20th century)