British first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, died on Monday following a stroke at the Ritz Hotel. She was aged 87. Family spokesperson, Lord Tim Bell, announced her death.
Although her children were said to be abroad as at the time of her death, Thatcher’s doctor and care giver were reportedly at her bedside.
She had been staying at the Ritz hotel following her discharge from hospital at the end of last year.
Thatcher, whose tenure was the longest since 1827, serving 11 unbroken years at No 10 Downing Street, was only “overthrown” by an internal Tory Party “coup” in 1990 after her “reckless” promotion of the poll tax led to rioting in Trafalgar Square.
The octogenarian, who had been in declining health for some years, suffered from dementia.
The death of her husband of 50 years, Sir Denis Thatcher, had intensified her isolation in what had proved a frustrating retirement, despite energetic worldwide activities in the early years.
After a series of mini-strokes in 2002, Thatcher withdrew from public life, no longer able to make the kind of waspish pronouncements that had been her forte in office and beyond.
Although Thatcher will not have a state funeral, she will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.
The ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.
The Union Jack above Number 10 Downing Street was lowered to half-mast, while Parliament will be recalled from its Easter recess on Wednesday to enable the lawmakers to pay tributes to the former prime minister.
A grocer’s daughter with a steely resolve, Thatcher was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed the unions, privatised vast swathes of British industry, clashed with the European Union and fought a war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders.