Margaret Thatcher Centre to be housed at Buckingham

A university that had close links to Margaret Thatcher is to house a library and museum devoted to the life and ideals of Britain’s only woman prime minister.

The announcement was made by Donal Blaney, chief executive of the Margaret Thatcher Centre, at a dinner held at London’s Guildhall on 27 October, which was also notable for an outspoken and much-reported speech on immigration by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.

After discussion between the centre’s trustees and the university, said Mr Blaney, “both sides [were] working together towards the siting of the Margaret Thatcher Centre, together with its domestic and international programme, at the University of Buckingham, where Lady Thatcher was chancellor [1992-8]”.

Buckingham was established as an independent, not-for-profit university college in 1973, when Lady Thatcher was education secretary. She also played a significant role, while serving as prime minister, in its elevation to the status of the UK’s first private university in 1983.

Like the centres devoted to American presidents, the Margaret Thatcher Centre will incorporate a library, museum and resources for both education and research.

It is hoped that it will be up and running by 2019, the thirtieth anniversary of Lady Thatcher reaching a decade as prime minister and the sixtieth anniversary of her becoming an MP.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com