FOR Baroness Margaret Hilda Thatcher, the bell tolled and world leaders gathered to say goodbye to one of the strongest willed political leaders of the 20th century.

The former British Prime Minister (1979-1990) died of stroke on 8 April, in London, aged 87. She is the only woman to have occupied the office.

Born in 1925, in Grantham, England, Margaret Hilda Roberts was the daughter of a grocery shopkeeper, but her determination was evident from her early years when she cultivated the culture of thrift and hard work.

She obtained a degree in Chemistry, from Oxford University in 1947, but studied law at the same university in 1953, specialising in taxation.

Before Thatcher emerged in 1975 as the leader of the Conservative Party, she spent 20 years preparing for her political career. She was an Under-Secretary for Pensions and National Insurance in 1961 and Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970.

She defeated Edward Heat in 1975 to become the party leader and four years later she led the party to victory. The Iron Lady, she became known, won two crucial elections to stay in office for an unprecedented 11 years.

The passion that greeted her demise is as strong as the one she evoked while alive. Her legacy is that she tried to pull her country from the morass, but was so committed to that cause that she ranked her policies more important than the people. Her tough fiscal regime privatised ailing public companies, closed those that could not be sold and cut public spending.

She maintained that government had no business doing business. No debates could change her preference for free enterprise and unfettered market forces. “This lady will not turn,” she retorted to the debates.

In Europe, Thatcher was a strident apostle of British independence, which, apart from the wrangling with the labour unions, proved her greatest undoing.

Her place in British history is doubtlessly confirmed. The presence of Queen Elizabeth II at her funeral, the second such outing for the Queen since 1965, in the Queen’s 60-year reign, demonstrates it. Her funeral also attracted world leaders who have kept paying her glowing tributes as the one whose policies transverse labour and conservative politics.

Equally instructive is the bitterness  millions of Britons displayed towards her.

Thatcher may have been successful in rebuilding the British economy and restoring Britain’s international relevance, however, governance is still about the welfare of the people. What is the use of a strong economy if it results in more unemployment?

The British and billions of people her policies hurt globally did not forgive her. It is a burden of leadership that her family will bear well after her demise.