MOURNED: Margaret Thatcher was hailed by British PM David Cameron: “She didn’t just lead our country — she saved our country.” (Getty Images)
Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first and only woman prime minister and President Ronald Reagan’s fierce partner in a Cold War showdown against communism, died yesterday. She was 87.
A spokeswoman said she suffered a stroke, and died at London’s Ritz Hotel, where she had been staying since January following a minor operation.
Thatcher served from 1975 to 1990 as the polarizing leader of the Conservative Party in Britain’s Parliament, where she gained a worldwide reputation for personal and political toughness.
“We’ve lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton,” said Prime Minister David Cameron. “Margaret Thatcher didn’t just lead our country — she saved our country.
“Margaret Thatcher took a country that was on its knees and made Britain stand tall again.”
Union Jack flags flew at half staff over Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the prime minister’s residence on Downing Street.
Thatcher, credited with leading a decade of political and economic change in Britain, will be given a full ceremonial funeral with honors on April 17 or 18 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, officials said.
The ceremony will be similar to the funeral held for Princess Diana, although it is a step short of the full state funeral of the kind accorded to monarchs and World War II PM Winston Churchill.
“The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher,” a statement from Buckingham Palace said. “Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family.”
Thatcher got the nickname “The Iron Lady” from the Soviet Army newspaper Red Star after she criticized Moscow in a 1976 speech for being bent on world domination.
It was a moniker that Thatcher seemed to cherish.
“If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you,” she told an interviewer.
Known worldwide for her bouffant hairdo, her ever-present handbag and her high-pitched, Julia Child-like voice, Thatcher ushered in a new era in a nation that featured a strong queen, but had never elected a female prime minister before she took office in 1979.
Among her many, and sometimes controversial, accomplishments were free-market capitalism, a strong military defense and her shoulder-to-shoulder stance with Reagan in the face of Soviet aggression.
But her brightest hour may have come on April 2, 1982, when she decided to send British forces to the Falkland Islands after Argentina invaded.
After a bloody, 74-day war, the outpost was recaptured and the Thatcher legacy was born.
By the time she left office in 1990 after three consecutive terms, she was Britain’s longest-serving prime minister and its most recognizable leader after Churchill.
President Obama said Thatcher had been a “true friend” to the United States.
“As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best,” Obama said.
“And, as an unapologetic supporter of our trans-Atlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve, we could win the Cold War and extend freedom’s promise.”
Thatcher’s fatal stroke followed a series of minor strokes in recent years that effectively cut her off from the public.