The 13th October 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Baroness Thatcher, Somerville alumna and a global political figure whose life and accomplishments continue to influence women leaders around the world.
Margaret Hilda Roberts at her matriculation, Somerville, 1943
Margaret Roberts came up to Somerville College to study Chemistry on her eighteenth birthday in 1943. Her route to Oxford had not been easy. Neither her parents nor grandparents had attended university, and she had not learnt Latin at school (a prerequisite for entrance to Oxford at the time). She covered a five-year Latin course in months to gain her Latin School certificate, showing the determination for which she would later become famous.
In joining Somerville, Mrs Thatcher became a member of the most politically orientated of all the women’s colleges. Somerville had founded its own debating society in 1882, and by 1897 a writer in the Fritillary looked forward, not entirely in jest, to the day when “the Leader of the women’s party in Parliament shall acknowledge that her exalted position is due entirely to the fluency and assurance gained in the weekly Sharp Practice Debates.”
And yet, Mrs Thatcher’s politics were not determined by Somerville. The college’s founders had been staunch Liberals and Thatcher’s own tutor, Dorothy Hodgkin, was an ardent socialist and campaigner against nuclear proliferation. As always at Somerville, difference of opinion was respected and the ability to argue one’s case was what mattered.
Despite their differing political views, the future Mrs Thatcher and Dorothy Hodgkin formed a lifelong bond. Hodgkin, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Science in 1964, recognised Thatcher’s ability and conscientiousness, and advocated on her behalf to the College for some much-needed financial support. In turn, Mrs Thatcher never lost either her respect for Hodgkin, or her pride in being a scientist.
The mutual respect between the two women lasted long after Somerville, with Professor Hodgkin visiting Margaret Thatcher annually at Chequers during her time as Prime
Margaret Thatcher visiting Somerville with her former tutor, Dorothy Hodgkin
Minister, exemplifying the relationships that are built between tutor and student through Oxford’s tutorial system. It is reported that Margaret Thatcher would prepare for these visits as thoroughly as she did for her meetings with world leaders.
Today, Margaret Thatcher’s example continues to inspire world leaders and women leaders around the world, exemplified most recently by Sanae Takaichi in Japan who just won the leadership of Japan’s ruling party against a field – and history – dominated by men. She has repeatedly referred to Thatcher as a source of inspiration, citing her strong character and convictions coupled with her “womanly warmth”.
‘A Rich Harvest’
Throughout her life, Lady Thatcher openly acknowledged her debt to Somerville. During the 1980s, she wrote from Downing St to then-Principal Daphne Park:
It was such a privilege to be there. Without it, I should never have been here.
In an open letter to the College in 1980, she went further still:
May I take a few moments from the daily round of difficult tasks to say how much I owe to four years at Somerville.
The harvest gathered from those years has been rich indeed.
Rich in friendships which range across the world and form a common bond with people in many different countries.
Rich in an enhanced awareness that universities not only transmit scholarship from generation to generation but that they are the main source of creative ideas which are both a hope and a challenge for the future.
And perhaps because I was there in wartime, rich in the knowledge that without freedom life would have neither dignity nor meaning.
There have been times of corrosive cynicism. They pass. And the best endures.
One last thought – or is it feeling – I loved those years. I really did.
Comment from Lord Hague
Lord Hague speaking at Somerville College, September 2025
William Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond, is a British politician and life peer who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001 and Deputy Leader from 2005 to 2010. He was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2024, and offered the following comment on Margaret Thatcher’s connection to the University: ‘Oxford has shaped many of our leaders. Of the eighteen Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom since 1945, fourteen were educated at Oxford. One of the most influential of all, Margaret Thatcher, was not only the first woman Prime Minister but the first scientist to hold that position as well. I had many conversations with her in her later years. She spoke regularly of the crucial role of Oxford in her life, along with her fond memories of Somerville and deep affection for the college. It was highly appropriate that she was educated at a college that was so pioneering in the education of women and has always been at the forefront of the advancement of science.’
The Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust
Margaret Thatcher was made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College in 1970. In 1991, the College opened the Margaret Thatcher Centre – a suite comprising lecture room, ante-room, lobby and private garden. Following Mrs Thatcher’s death in 2013, Somerville established the Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust. The aim of the Trust is simple: to enable the brightest students, regardless of their background and from all walks of life, to reap the rewards of an Oxford and Somerville education. In doing so, they will unlock their potential and obtain the skills and tools to become leaders in their respective fields, much as the young Margaret Hilda Roberts did. Lady Thatcher was consulted about the plans for the Trust at an early stage by her former Private Secretary, Lord Powell, who reported:
“She was plainly delighted and honoured by the thought that holders of such scholarships bearing her name would carry forward the reputation of the College to which she owed so much herself.”
The Council of Women World Leaders
On the 17th October, we will be marking the centenary of Margaret Thatcher’s birth with a special event launching the archives of Laura Liswood that will now reside at Somerville. The archives are comprised of Laura’s many meetings and interviews that led to the creation of the Council of Women World Leaders. She will be in conversation with our Principal, Catherine Royle, and former Prime Minister of Canada, the Rt Hon. Kim Campbell.