In her grandmother's footsteps: Amanda Thatcher, teenager with the world at her feet

 
1/5

Like her grandmother, Amanda Thatcher commands attention.

The teenager, who captivated a worldwide audience as she spoke with great poise at Baroness Thatcher's funeral, was voted the most likely to “change the world” by her peers when she graduated from high school last year.

The 19-year-old and her brother, 24-year-old Michael, flew to Britain at the weekend from Dallas, Texas, where they live with their mother Diane Beckett, Sir Mark Thatcher’s first wife. They are Baroness Thatcher’s only two grandchildren.

Currently studying at the University of Richmond, in Virginia, Amanda is said to be an excellent runner and was captain of her school’s girl’s track team, sang in the choir and enjoys horse riding.

She and her brother are dedicated evangelical Christians.

Adryana Boyne, director of Voices Offering Conservative Empowering Solutions (VOCES), a Republican-leaning organisation in Dallas, knows Amanda and described her as “an extraordinary woman of faith with a melodious voice and a kind heart (and as my son Samuel says, she bakes good chocolate lava cakes)”.

It was the birth of Amanda’s brother Michael, in 1989, which caused Baroness Thatcher famously to announce: “We have become a grandmother”.

Michael was also at the funeral. A committed Christian and conservative, he graduated from Texas A&M University in chemistry, the same subject his grandmother studied at Oxford. He works at a pharmacy in Texas but has been tipped to go into politics. A decade ago, at the funeral of Denis Thatcher, Michael gave a reading.

Baroness Thatcher’s “greatest delight”, she told an interviewer, was “when my daughter-in-law sends me photographs of the grandchildren. Apart from seeing them in the flesh, that is the greatest pleasure I have in the whole year, far exceeding everything else".

Before her death, friends visiting the former Prime Minister at her grand house in Chester Square, Belgravia, noticed two framed portraits of Michael and Amanda on either side of the mantelpiece.

The children grew up in South Africa. But in September 2005, when Amanda was 14 and Michael 19, their parents divorced after 18 years of marriage and their mother, the daughter of millionaire Texan car dealer Theodore C Burgdorf, decided to take them back to the US.

Mark Thatcher lives in Marbella at the moment although was in Barbados at the time of his mother’s death.

The teenager, whose middle name is Margaret, wore a wide-brimmed asymmetric black hat and a single string of pearls that look like the ones her grandmother had. Could it be that this necklace gave her strength as she stood by the coffin?

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in