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Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet of Scotney, MBE , TD ( May 10 , 1915 – June 26 , 2003 ) was a businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister , Baroness Thatcher . He was born in Lewisham , London , the son of a New Zealand -born British businessman. He was the last person outside the British Royal Family to be awarded a Hereditary Title . EARLY LIFE / WORK Educated at the boarding school, Mill Hill , he left at the age of eighteen to join the Family Business , Atlas Preservatives. During the Second World War , he served in the 34th Searchlight (Queen's Own Royal West Kent) Regiment of the Royal Engineers before being promoted to the rank of Major . He was twice Mentioned In Dispatches , and in 1945 was appointed an MBE . In 1942 he married his first wife, Margaret Kempson. They were divorced in 1948 . In 1950 while attending a Conservative Party function he met Margaret Roberts , a Chemist and British Politician who later became the first female Prime Minister . They were married the next year, and had two children in 1953. In rare communications with the press, he referred to her as "The Boss". He was the Director of the Burmah Oil Company Trading Co., Chairman of the Atlas Preservative Co., Vice-chairman of Attwoods plc, Director of Quinton Hazell plc, and a Consultant to Amec plc and CSX Corp. PUBLIC LIFE AND PERCEPTIONS The public perception of his character was formed chiefly from a series of spoof letters published in the ''". Margaret Thatcher, however, often acknowledged her husband's support. In her autobiography she wrote: ''I could never have been Prime Minister for more than 11 years without Denis by my side''. In 1991, Denis Thatcher was created a Baronet as ''Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet of Scotney in the County of Kent''. This meant that his wife was entitled to be called Lady Thatcher whilst retaining her seat in the House of Commons, and was also, controversially, a hereditary title that was to be inherited by their son Mark. It was the last British hereditary honour to be granted to anyone outside the Royal Family. However, Sir Denis Thatcher's wife was created a life peeress as ''Baroness Thatcher'' in her own right in 1992 after her retirement from the House of Commons in that year. LEGACY Their twin children (b. 1953 ) are Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet and Carol Thatcher . He died at the age of 88 at London's Lister Hospital, five months after undergoing heart bypass surgery, with his funeral on July 3 , 2003 at the chapel of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea . Prime Minister Tony Blair called him a "kind and generous-hearted man, a real gentleman who had many friends here and abroad". PUBLICATIONS
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