Mark Thatcher
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Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is the only son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher. 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.
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[edit] Personal life
Mark Thatcher attended Harrow School. In the summer of 1969 he passed three O-levels. In November that year, he obtained two more and left school with three A-levels in the summer of 1971. He became an articled clerk at Touche Ross, a City of London firm of Chartered Accountants, but did not succeed in becoming an accountant, failing his accountancy exams three times.
He inherited the baronetcy (which carries the title "Sir") after the death of his father in 2003.
On 3 April 2005, Sir Mark, then living with his widowed mother in London, announced that his family home will be 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 over 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.
Under the headline "Mark Thatcher — undesirable in Monaco?" French newspaper Le Figaro reported on 20 December 2005:
- "Margaret Thatcher's son, the former British prime minister's nefarious offspring, will not be installing himself in the principality of Monaco as he hoped." A spokesman for Prince Albert told Le Figaro that Sir Mark's residency card would not be renewed. "He has a temporary residency card valid for one year. It will not be renewed when it expires in the second half of 2006 and he will have to leave." The spokesman, Armand Deus, added: "I cannot say why it will not be renewed. But the Prince made things very clear during his investiture in July when he said that ethics will be at the centre of life in Monaco."
Sir Mark Thatcher has a twin sister, Carol Thatcher, a journalist.
[edit] Marriage and children
In 1987, Mark Thatcher married Diane Burgdorf, the conservative Lutheran daughter of the millionaire Texas car dealer Theodore C. Burgdorf, on 14 February 1987 in Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, London, England. 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. The family moved to South Africa possibly to avoid bad publicity because of allegations against Mark Thatcher of racketeering that resulted in a £4 million civil action in 1994. They have a son and a daughter:
- Michael Thatcher (b. 28 February 1989)
- Amanda Margaret Thatcher (b. 1993)
[edit] Motorsport career
Thatcher was involved in some of the deals that saw Williams Grand Prix Engineering acquire a portfolio of Saudi Arabian sponsors.
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 9 January 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 12 January ; 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 financed his rallying under a company called "Mark Thatcher Racing", but it was dissolved because of financial problems.
Thatcher also competed, with little success but less notoriety, on the circuits in Sports 2000, Thundersports and eventually graduated to the European Touring Car Championship with BMW.
[edit] Business life
Thatcher initially hoped to become an accountant but failed his accountancy exams three times. He was later employed in the jewelry business and was involved in a succession of 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 al 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 allegations of U.S. tax evasion (a criminal case was eventually dropped) and a racketeering case in Texas which was settled out of court. According to "The Telegraph" (26 August 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."
[edit] Equatorial Guinea affair
On 25 August 2004, Thatcher was arrested at 10 Dawn Avenue, his thatched-roof mansion in Constantia, a rich district of 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 [an] attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea" organized 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 24 November 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 25 November 2004, regarding offences under the South African Foreign Military Assistance Act; however, these proceedings were later postponed until 8 April 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.
[edit] Titles
The coup scandal outraged left-wing Members of Parliament, who demanded that Sir Mark be stripped of his baronetcy. No action was taken, however. The title, which was created in 1992, was the first new Baronetcy since 1965. It was not the first honour to be granted to the spouse of a British Prime Minister: John Major's own wife Norma was created a Dame, and the wives of both Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill were given peerages in their own right, although the former also excited controversy at the time.
[edit] Timeline of Titles
- Mark Thatcher (15 August 1953–26 June 1992)
- The Hon. Mark Thatcher (26 June 1992–26 June 2003)
- The Hon. Sir Mark Thatcher, Bt (26 June 2003—)
[edit] 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
[edit] 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
- Mail on Sunday article
[edit] References
- "A sunny place for shady people but Monaco doesn't want Mark Thatcher" by Kim Willshire, The Guardian, 21 December 2005
[edit] See also
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Denis Thatcher |
Baronet (of Scotney) 2003–present |
Incumbent |
