Someday when a woman is elected president of the United States – (and I doubt very much that it will be a former first lady) – our nation will face the question: What about the First Gentleman?
Very fortunately, Great Britain has provided us an absolutely wonderful model, whose death at age 88 is almost universally regretted in the United Kingdom.
Sir Denis Thatcher, a World War II officer, and later a multi-millionaire industrial leader, was the husband of Britain’s first female prime minister, an extraordinary leader known as the “Iron Lady.”
Her husband always walked behind her. And he had not only a great sense of humor, but the great wisdom to be utterly discreet.
Of him, she wrote in her autobiography: “I could never have been prime minister for more than 11 years without Denis at my side. He was a fund of shrewd advice and penetrating comment. And he very sensibly saved these for me rather than the outside world.”
Sir Denis never gave interviews, since that was his wife’s job. But he enjoyed the media and they him. Once he advised: “Avoid telling them to sod off – it makes them cross.”
Particularly hilarious was Britain’s satirical magazine Private Eye, which regularly published a series of “Dear Bill” letters which they wrote to his great friend and golfing companion, Lord Deeder, former editor of London’s Daily Telegraph.
These alleged letters often amused him with their references to “pinkos and Marxists at the BBC” or “another visit with ‘Old Hopalong’ [Ronald Reagan]” and alleged reproofs from ‘The Boss,’ his spouse.
When the Duchess of York complained of her own “awful press,” he mimicked zipping his lips, and added: “Has it occurred to you to keep your mouth shut?”
“Remember,” he often said, “that it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool – than open it and remove all doubt!”
On rare occasions, he did speak out, such as when he was asked for the secret of his trim build – and replied: “Gin and cigarettes.”
There was a hit play produced, titled: “Anyone for Denis?”. He almost invariably accompanied his wife overseas, where he commentated on the remote, windswept Falkland Islands as: “We sure as hell didn’t go there for the real estate! It’s miles and miles of nothing!”
Or, when the Irish Republican Army set off a bomb that destroyed part of the Thatcher’s hotel suite during a convention in 1984, he commented: “It was quite a thump. And you should have seen the bathroom!”
On trips overseas, Sir Denis always huddled, most amiably, with other prime ministers’ or presidents’ wives.
Prime Minister Tony Blair described him as “a successful businessman, devoted family man and loyal friend who was always entertaining company.”
He met Margaret Roberts at a Conservative Party function in 1950. One year later, they were married, and in 1953 she gave birth to twins.
At age 80, he reflected on his marriage and said: “All I could produce, small as it may be, was love and loyalty.”
Of him, she said: “He is the golden thread that ran through my life … I think people adore him – and I do too.”
As such, we are saddened at this parting, but hopeful that in God’s eternal love this golden thread will be rewoven, in the life of the world to come.
