Talk:Denis Thatcher/Archives/2013

First marriage
The original version of this article said:

"In 1942 he married Margaret Doris Hickman. They were divorced in 1946."

The only obit I've seen that mentions his first wife gives a different name and divorce date, and I've changed the page here to reflect this. However, the obit in question is The Guardian, so who knows... I felt confident enough to change the info because the orignal article here also said that his son is called Michael. Of course, it may be that Mark Thatcher's real name IS Michael... In which case... -Nommo

Your dating system seems to indicate that his first wife died on June 8th 1948, only 5 months after she had remarried. Her quoted praise of Denis is unlikely to have been made as early as this. You might like to check the date of her death. 81.157.97.203 (talk) 23:35, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Title
User:Proteus is thanked for his prompt correction to my usage of style and title. Ah, well; us colonials just don't understand, do we. :-) (BTW, check out my fortuitously recent and unrelated revision of Proteus (disambiguation).) Peter Ellis 01:14, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Funny
'In her autobiography she wrote: I could never have been Prime Minister for more than 11 years without Denis by my side.'. Am I the only person that finds the ambiguity in this statement amusing? ;-) Badgerpatrol 19:58, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes.

Support for Apartheid South Africa
This subject isn't even mentioned - I plan to add something. --SandyDancer 01:23, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Spelling of first name
The Births England and Wales 1837-1915 and Deaths England and Wales 1984-2006 records both spell his first name Dennis. Biographies 2 (talk) 20:35, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Hereditary title
Who has inherited his hereditary title?--DThomsen8 (talk) 13:13, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
 * As indicated in at least two places in the article, his son, Mark. David Underdown (talk) 15:33, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Business career
Denis Thatcher seems to have run an oil-related business from 1943 to 1965. However the name of the business is not given, nor anything else about it, nor about his business career and/or sources of income after 1965. Does this not seem a bit of an omission? Maybe it's not our business, but the ratio of text on his military career (lots) to text on his business career (little) seems out of line. AWhiteC (talk) 15:00, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
 * There's a bit more detail int eh ODNB article, which would probably allow some expansion. I added most of the military stuff, simply becauseI knew where the sources were, there aren't really direct equivaletns for his busniess activities.  David Underdown (talk) 17:47, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Marriages
This article and the one about Margaret Thatcher have different dates and events surrounding their meeting. Akornoh (talk) 22:56, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Is there such an "office"?
It says that he was "in office" as the "spouse of the British Prime Minister"; does such an office exist? 82.29.37.75 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:53, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
 * No, it does not. It is ridiculous to treat it as such. Surtsicna (talk) 13:26, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Interest in sports
As I recall he was a keen amateur rugby union referee. Worth mentioning? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.53.69.150 (talk) 12:48, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Military rank
'...war substantive captain and temporary major'.

Are you sure about 'War substantive'? I thought 'substantive' was the official rank of a regular officer, who would usually occupy a higher operational rank in wartime, because of heavy recruitment and accelerated promotion. Then at the end of the war, they would revert back to their substantive rank.

As Denis was not a regular, I would guess this means wartime Captain, and temporary (acting) Major. Valetude (talk) 19:08, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

There was also such a thing as "war substantive" rank, even for those with wartime commissions - this would explain why he became a substantive lieutenant in 1945, despite already being a war substantive captain and acting major. My late father, who was much the same age, was a "war substantive" lieutenant and twice acting captain. IIRC (I think it was in Carol Thatcher's biog of her father) DT was briefly a local lieutenant-colonel during his time in Marseilles.Paulturtle (talk) 22:42, 28 July 2013 (UTC)