Friday 12 April 2013

The Honours and Awards of The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS

Baroness Thatcher on Garter Day
wearing the robes of a Lady of the Garter

The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS lived a life "crowded with incident".

As far as I am aware, the tributes and articles published in the days following her death have failed to provide full details on the offices she held and the honours she received. The list below is provided for public record.

It is lamentable that Lady Thatcher remains the only Oxford graduate prime minister not to have received an honorary doctorate from that academic institution.

Armorial Bearings:

Blazon: On a lozenge circumscribed by the Garter and the Ribbon of the Order of Merit with Cross pendant
therefrom, surmounted by a baron's coronet, per chevron azure gules, a double key in chief between two lions combatant a tower with portcullis in base all or, with supporters: dexter: An admiral of the British Navy; sinister: Sir Isaac Newton holding in his left hand weighing scales, both proper. Motto: CHERISH FREEDOM. 

Non-Honorary Academic Qualifications:

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Called to the Bar and admitted to Lincoln's Inn

Offices:

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service: 1979-1990

Leader of the Conservative Party: 1975-90

Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition: 1975-1979

Shadow Secretary of State: 1974-1975

Secretary of State for Education and Science: 1970-1974

Shadow Secretary of State: 1969-1970

Shadow Secretary of State: 1968-1969

Shadow Secretary of State: 1967-1968

Parliamentary Secretary (Ministry of Pensions and Insurance): 1961-1964

Member of Parliament to the Constituency of Finchley: 1959-1992



Lady Thatcher in the House of Lords
National Honours:

1970: Appointed to Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council

1975: Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn

1983: Fellow of the Royal Society

1990: Order of Merit

1990: Entitled to the style of "Lady Thatcher" following the creation of a baronetcy for her husband, Major Sir Dennis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD.

1992: Created a Life Peer (UK) as The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher, of Kevesten in the County of Lincolnshire.

1992: Received a Grant of Arms from the College of Arms

1992: Chancellor Buckingham University

1995: Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

2012: Freedom of the City of Westminster

2013: Ceremonial Funeral with full military honours

President George Bush Sr. presents Margaret Thatcher with
the Presidential Medal of Freemdom
Foreign Honours:

1981: Donovan Award (USA) (for distinguished contribution to democracy and freedom)

1989: Honorary Doctorate from Technion University

1991: US Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian award)

1994: Chancellor of William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

1998: Honorary Doctorate from Brigham Young University (USA)

2008: Honorary Doctorate from Pepperdine University (USA)

Miscellaneous Honours:

1975: As Leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman entitled to full membership rights in the Carlton Club.

2007: A statue of Margaret Thatcher erected in the Houses of Parliament, standing across from the statue of Sir Winston Churchill by the entrance to the House of Commons.

Falklands Islands Honours:

Since 1992 Margaret Thatcher Day has been celebrated on the Islands ever year on 10 January.

Thatcher Drive in Stanley and Thatcher Peninsula in South Georgia (where British troops landed) were named in her honour.



1 comment:

AndrewWS said...

"Since 1992 Margaret Thatcher Day has been celebrated on the Islands ever year on 10 January." Perhaps we in the UK should now do likewise.

"It is lamentable that Lady Thatcher remains the only Oxford graduate prime minister not to have received an honorary doctorate from that (ETA: second-rate) academic institution (ETA: run by narrow-minded self-obsessed nitwits)."

No wonder she left her papers to Churchill College, Cambridge.