Alfred Roberts

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Alfred Roberts (18 April 1892 – 10 February 1970) was an English grocer, lay preacher, alderman and Mayor of Grantham. He was the father of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Biography

Early life

Roberts was born in Ringstead and grew up in Northamptonshire. He was the fifth of seven children. His father was Benjamin Ebenezer Roberts (1857-1925), from a Ringstead family, and his mother was Ellen Smith (1857-1935), whose own mother was born at Kenmare in Ireland.^[1]

Roberts' bad eyesight meant he could not enter the family trade of shoemaking. He left school at thirteen in order to help support his family and is listed in the 1911 census as living as a boarder Oundle, Northamptonshire, and working as a grocer's assistant. He later moved to Grantham, Lincolnshire, where he gained a job as an apprentice in a greengrocers; he had originally wanted to become a teacher. When World War I broke out in 1914, Roberts, "a deeply patriotic man",^[2] applied to enlist in the army six times but was rejected because of his poor eyesight.

Four years after moving to Grantham, Roberts met Beatrice Ethel Stephenson through the local Methodist church, which he attended every Sunday. They married in Grantham on 28 May 1917 and had two daughters, both born in Grantham: Muriel (1921 - December 2004)^[3] and Margaret (born 1925).^[4] In 1919 they bought the grocery shop and in 1923 Roberts opened a second shop. He took one week off work every year to compete in the annual bowls tournament at Skegness.^{[citation needed]} He was a religious man and also a regular lay preacher who met prominent Methodists such as Leslie Weatherhead and Donald Soper.^{[citation needed]}

Politics

Roberts was an "old-fashioned liberal"^[5] who believed strongly in individual responsibility and sound finance. He had read and admired John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. He came from a family that traditionally voted Liberal but he believed that the Liberal Party had embraced collectivism and that the Conservatives stood for the old liberalism.^[6] His daughter Muriel recalled that Roberts "was always a Liberal at heart".^[7] In the 1935 general election, Roberts helped the local Conservative candidate Victor Warrender to win the seat.

In 1927 Roberts was elected to the Grantham town council as an independent. He was also a part-time Justice of the Peace, president of the Chamber of Trade, President of Rotary, a director of the Grantham Building Society, a director of the Trustee Savings Bank, chairman of the local National Savings Movement, a governor of the local boys and girls grammar schools and chairman of the Workers' Educational Association. During the Second World War he was Chief Welfare Officer, directing civil defence.^[8] He soon became Chairman of the Finance and Rating Committee, and in 1943 he was elected by the council as an Alderman and then served as the Mayor of Grantham from November 1945 to 1946, in which he presided over the town's victory celebrations. In his inaugural speech Roberts called for a large programme of expenditure to rebuild the roads, public transport, health and social services for children and to "build houses by the thousand."^[9]

On 21 May 1952, Roberts was voted out as Alderman by the first Labour majority on the council and as the vote was taken he proclaimed: "It is now almost nine years since I took up these robes in honour, and now I trust in honour they are laid down."^[10] When Thatcher recalled this event over thirty years later during an interview with Miriam Stoppard, she said it was "very emotional" and wept on television.^[11]

Personal

Roberts retired and sold his business in 1958 but continued to preach and remained active in the Rotary Club. Beatrice died in 1960, Roberts married again to Cecily Miriam Hubbard in 1965. He died in 1970, shortly before the election, and nine years before his daughter became prime minister.^[12]

Coincidentally, he shared his name and occupation with a fictional character in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (played by Bryan Mosley from 1961 until 1998).

References

References

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010)

• Chris Ogden, Maggie (Simon and Schuster, 1990).
• Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (HarperCollins, 1995).
• Hugo Young, One of Us (Pan, 1990).

External links

• Photograph of Roberts laying down his robes as Alderman in 1952

v t e Margaret Thatcher Member of Parliament Finchley · Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 · Shadow Cabinet Ideology Thatcherism  · Conservatism  · Libertarianism Premiership Thatcher Ministry · Cold War · 1981 Irish hunger strike · The lady's not for turning · Falklands War · Brighton hotel bombing · Opposition to trade unions · Miners' strike · Local Government Act · Westland affair · Sermon on the Mound · Community Charge · Gulf War · Resignation Honours Party elections 1975 · 1989 · 1990 General elections 1979 · 1983 · 1987 Family Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Bt (husband) · The Hon. Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Bt (son) · The Hon. Carol Thatcher (daughter) · Alfred Roberts (father) Cultural depictions Thatcher: The Final Days · The Falklands Play · Pinochet in Suburbia · The Long Walk to Finchley · Margaret · The Iron Lady · The Hunt for Tony Blair · Steve Nallon · Janet Brown Book · Category ·  Commons