MARGARET THATCHER

But while she failed to find a ticket to Westminster, the young Margaret Roberts, as she was then known, did meet her future husband while on the campaign trail.

Formally adopted as Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Dartford in 1949 for the following year’s general election, it was at a dinner at the Paint Trades Federation in the town where she first met Denis Thatcher - a man she would marry two years later.

However, luck in love did not translate to the ballot box just yet.

Defeat in the 1950 election was followed by another defeat in the same seat the following year - after Labour PM Clement Atlee called a snap election in a bid to boost his minority government. He lost, and so did Miss Roberts. Although she shaved 7,500 off MP Norman Dodds’ majority over the two elections.

Living in Dartford and working as a research chemist in London, she then attempted to win the Tory nod to contest the Orpington seat in the 1955 election - but failed.

It would be her last major political set-back. In 1958 she was elected as MP to Finchley.

By 1975 she was party leader and in 1979 swept to power. During the early 1980s she had a bolt-hole flat in the grounds of Scotney Castle in Lamberhurst as she became one of the most influential politicians of the latter part of the 20th century. She was eventually forced to step down in 1990.

Shediedin2013attheageof87.