Loyalty remained unwavering

Denis Thatcher was a bedrock of support for his wife, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He died Thursday at age 88.

LONDON - Loving and loyal, always ready with a drink, a quip, or a word of advice or comfort, Denis Thatcher was the ideal spouse for Britain's first female prime minister.

After his death Thursday (June 26, 2003) at the age of 88, friends and colleagues praised Mr. Thatcher's unstinting support for his wife, Margaret, through their long marriage and her 101/2 years in power.

"His friends have lost a great chap in Denis Thatcher, but his wife has lost a tremendous supporting force," said longtime friend and golfing partner Bill Deedes.

Margaret Thatcher's successor, John Major, said Mr. Thatcher provided his wife "with dispassionate advice that he was wise enough to keep private and Margaret was wise enough to accept."

Described by his wife as a "golden thread" running through her life, Mr. Thatcher underwent coronary bypass surgery in January and had been hospitalized for several weeks before his death at London's Lister Hospital.

A tall, well-dressed and wealthy man who was always a step behind his famous wife during her years in power from 1979 to 1990, Mr. Thatcher learned to turn the self-effacing remark into a high art. He once described himself as the most "shadowy husband of all time."

At the age of 80, Mr. Thatcher looked back on his marriage and mused, "All I could produce, small as it may be, was love and loyalty."

But the witty, well-spoken businessman also became something of a national institution in his own right.

To satirists, he was an amiable, boozy old duffer, golf mad and henpecked, always trying to sneak off for a "tincture" with chums, and vigorously airing right-wing views.

To his wife, he was the bedrock: the provider of nannies and expensive boarding schools for their two children, and the love story that made the rest possible.

Thatcher was 63 and a retired oil executive when his wife led the Conservative Party to victory and became Europe's first female prime minister in May 1979.

He remained by her side through two more national elections, the 1982 Falkland Islands War, a 1984 assassination attempt and extensive foreign travel.

He was still there, waving briskly beside his tearful spouse as they left the prime minister's 10 Downing St. residence in November 1990, after she was ousted in a party revolt.

A month later he was made a hereditary baronet.

"Years ago, if anyone had said to me, "You'll be doing all this,' I'd have told them, "You've got to be out of your mind,"' he said in 1985.

Why did he do it? "God gives you a job. Get out and do it."

His image came partly from a satirical magazine, Private Eye, which ran spoof letters from Denis Thatcher to his golfing pal Deedes, former editor of London's Daily Telegraph.

The "Dear Bill" letters were scattered with complaints about "pinkos" at the British Broadcasting Corp., the tedium of another visit with "old Hopalong" (President Ronald Reagan) and reproofs from "The Boss."

Once, when asked the secret of his trim figure, Thatcher said: "gin and cigarettes."

Born into an upper-middle-class family, Thatcher took over his grandfather's paint and chemicals company, Atlas Preservatives, after World War II. His first marriage ended in divorce and he married 26-year-old Margaret Roberts in 1951.

Thatcher sold the family company in 1965 to Burmah Oil, but remained in the business until he retired.

He is survived by his wife, twins Carol and Mark, and two grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

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