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Revision as of 19:19, 23 November 2005
The Honourable Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born August 15, 1953), is the only son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister.
Antecedence
In addition to his prominence as the only son of one of the world's best known politicians, Sir Mark has attracted headlines for his alleged arrogance, youthful playboy scrapes, troubled business associations, and his involvement in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. In 2004, an unnamed South African hostess told The Telegraph that the baronet, who is reportedly worth in excess of £60,000,000, reminded her of one of the "amiable, entertaining twits" that inhabit the novels of P.G. Wodehouse.
In 1987, Mark Thatcher married Diane Burgdorf, the conservative Lutheran daughter of a millionaire Texas car dealer. They reportedly met at a party for D Magazine, a Dallas lifestyle publication, while Thatcher was living in Texas as a representative of the luxury automotive company Lotus Cars. They have a son and a daughter, Michael Thatcher and Amanda Margaret Thatcher. The family moved to South Africa possibly to avoid bad publicity because of allegations of racketeering that resulted in a £4 million civil action in 1994.
On April 3, 2005, Sir Mark, then living with his widowed mother in London, announced that his family will reside in Europe after he was refused a residence visa to live in the United States, presumably as a result of his guilty plea in South Africa in re his alleged unwitting involvement in an attempted coup d'état in Equatorial Guinea. His children, he stated, will be educated in the United States. In September 2005, his divorce was announced.
Motor rallying career
In 1982, while competing in the Paris-Dakar rally, Thatcher, his French co-driver, Charlotte Verney, and their mechanic went missing in the Sahara Desert for six days. On January 9, 1982, the trio became separated from a convoy of vehicles after they stopped to make repairs to a faulty steering arm. They were declared missing on January 12; after a large-scale search, a C-130 Hercules search plane from the Algerian military spotted the white Peugeot 504 some 50km off course. Thatcher, Verney and the mechanic were all unharmed. He was criticised at the time for not thanking his rescuers. He financed his rallying under a company called "Mark Thatcher Racing", but it was dissolved because of financial problems. The Paris-Dakar incident was one of the few times that the public saw a cracking of Prime Minister Thatcher's "Iron Lady" reputation, as she gave way to moments of obvious despair and worry.
Business life
The young Thatcher hoped to become an accountant but failed his exams three times. He was later employed in the jewelry business and was involved in unsuccessful career attempts in the Far East. It is his business dealings at the time that his mother was Prime Minister, however, that were the subject of much press attention.
Thatcher is alleged by a Saudi dissident, Mohammed Khilewi, as well as by former Labour MP Tam Dalyell, and The Guardian newspaper, to have received a multimillion-pound commission on the £20,000,000,000 Al Yamamah arms contract with Saudi Arabia, which his mother signed in 1985 as Prime Minister. According to The Guardian, "Sir Mark has always denied receiving this payment or exploiting his mother's connections in business dealings."
Other widely reported Thatcher embarrassments include alleged U.S. tax evasion (the criminal case was eventually dropped) and a racketeering case in Texas (it was settled out of court). According to "The Telegraph" (August 26, 2004), "In 1998, he was at the centre of a scandal after he lent huge sums of money at exorbitant interest rates to more than 900 local police officers and civil servants in Cape Town. He admitted lending the cash but insisted that he had done nothing wrong. He is also thought to have profited from contracts to supply aviation fuel in various African countries."
On August 25, 2004, Thatcher was arrested at #10 Dawn Avenue, his thatched-roof mansion in Constantia, a posh suburb outside Cape Town, South Africa. He was charged later that day with contravening two sections of South Africa's "Foreign Military Assistance Act", which bans South African residents from taking part in any foreign military activity. The charges related to "possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea" organised by Simon Mann. He was released on bail of 2 million Rand and spent a period of time under house arrest, but was bailed to London to live with his widowed mother while his wife and children moved to the family's home in Highland Park, an up-market section of her hometown, Dallas, Texas.
On November 24, 2004, the Cape Town High Court upheld a subpoena from the South African Justice Ministry that required him to answer "under oath" questions from Equatorial Guinean authorities regarding the alleged coup attempt. He was due to face questioning on November 25, 2004, regarding offences under the South African Foreign Military Assistance Act; however, these proceedings were later postponed until April 8, 2005. Ultimately, following a process of plea bargaining, Thatcher pleaded guilty to negligence in investing in an aircraft "without taking proper investigations into what it would be used for". He was fined three million rand (approximately $500,000 USD) and received a four-year suspended jail sentence.
The coup scandal outraged Gordon Prentice, a Member of Parliament, who demanded that Sir Mark be stripped of his baronetcy, but this has not occurred. The title, which was created in 1990, the first such since 1965, has long nettled both social and political observers for its unconventional origins. Its creation was reportedly recommended to the Queen by Prime Minister John Major under considerable pressure from the recently retired Margaret Thatcher, who wanted her child to inherit a title.
In April, 2005, on the basis of his criminal conviction, he was denied an entry visa into the USA to return to his family. He stated that he would make his family home in Europe, although his children would continue to be educated in the USA. He and his wife divorced in September of 2005.
Sir Mark Thatcher has a twin sister, Carol Thatcher, a reporter.
He inherited the baronetcy after the death of his father in 2003.
Titles
- Mark Thatcher, Esq (August 15, 1953–June 26, 1992)
- The Honourable Mark Thatcher (June 26, 1992–June 26, 2003)
- The Honourable Sir Mark Thatcher, Bt (June 26, 2003—)
External links
- "Telegraph" news story: "Richest member of a famous family and its most accident-prone"
- Guardian news story: "Mark Thatcher arrested in South Africa"
- Guardian news story: "Out of Arms Way" – additional details on the Al Yamamah situation
Profiles:
- The Guardian: "Profile: Sir Mark Thatcher. Playboy-turned-businessman dogged by rumours of financial impropriety"
- Guardian profile: "'Scratcher', the millionaire fixer"
- Independent profile: "Sir Mark Thatcher: How 'the charmless Mark' pocketed a fortune trading on his mother's name"
- The Times profile: "The son and heir who made Iron Lady unbend"
- The Scotsman profile: "In trouble again, mummy's boy always in her shadow"
- BBC profile
See also
| Preceded byDenis Thatcher | Thatcher Baronet of Scotney | Succeeded byCurrent Incumbent |