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Margaret Thatcher's Private Papers Donated To The Nation In Lieu Of £1.8 Million Inheritance Tax Bill

Thatcher's Memoirs Donated To Britain In Lieu Of Million Pound Tax Bill
Paul Vale
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Private papers belonging to Margaret Thatcher were donated to the nation on Thursday in lieu of £1 million in inheritance tax.

The documents, which include a previously unpublished 17,000-word memoir of the Falklands War written by the former prime minister in 1983 (a year after the conflict), were hailed by Arts Council England as "the single most significant historical document Margaret Thatcher ever wrote."

According to The Telegraph, the current £1.8 bill on Thatcher's £4.7 million estate will be halved, with her children, Carol and Mark, set to benefit.

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This 1982 file photo shows the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, during her election tour in London

Within the memoir, Thatcher reveals her suspicions that foreign secretary Francis Pym was plotting with Washington to sidestep her during a two key diplomatic phases of the war.

The council said on Thursday it had accepted the papers instead of tax from the estate of Thatcher, who died in 2013 aged 87. The papers will go to Cambridge University's Churchill Archives Centre.

The bulk of Thatcher's personal papers and diaries were donated to the foundation during her lifetime, but this latest trove remained in her possession, forming part of her estate when she died.

Thatcher, whose free-market policies transformed 1980s Britain, remains a divisive politician. Arts Council chairman Peter Bazalgette said that "whatever our politics," she was "a major historical figure" whose papers would now be available to scholars.

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Thatcher In Finchley
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Margaret Thatcher, Conservative candidate for Finchley. (credit:Barratts/S&G and Barratts)
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Margaret Thatcher 34, Conservative candidate for Finchley, is introduced to darts in a local pub by Fred Booth, a Finchley greengrocer. Mrs Thatcher aims to be the first woman barrister to be an M.P. (credit:PA/PA Archive)
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Margaret Thatcher, Conservative MP for Finchley (credit:Barratt's/S&G and Barratts)
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Margaret Thatcher MP enters the House of Commons after being elected member for Finchley in the General Election (credit:Barratts/S&G and Barratts)
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Recently elected Conservative MP for Finchley and Friern Barnet, Margaret Thatcher, 33, with her twin children, Carol and Mark, aged 6, at their home in Farnborough, Kent. (credit:PA/PA Archive)
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Mrs Margaret Thatcher, who succeeds Sir Edward Boyle as spokesman for Education in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet, at the Houses of Parliament. The change was announced by Mr Edward Heath. (credit:PA/PA Archive)
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Margaret Thatcher shopping in a supermarket in her Finchley constituency, North London. (credit:PA/PA Archive)
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Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister, shopping in a Finchley supermarket, London, part of her constituency. (credit:PA/PA Archive)
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Newly elected MP for Finchley and future British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher celebrated her victory with her 21 year-old son Mark, 11th October 1974. (credit:Sydney O'Meara via Getty Images)
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Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative M.P. for Finchley and Friern Barnet, is shown Nov. 1959 at her Farnborough, Kent, England, home with her twins, Mark and Carol, aged six. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher crouches down to get an eye level view of one of the displays when she visited a supermarket at Finchley in north London on Saturday, May 22, 1983. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Barnet, Finchley MP who believes in stocking up her larder shelves, places an empty shopping basket in the boot of her car, parked outside the House of Commons, Westminster in England on the eve of the Conservative party's leadership election on Feb. 3, 1975. (credit:AP)
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Margaret Thatcher, who succeeds Sir Edward Boyle as spokesman on Education in the Tory Shadow Cabinet, is shown at the Houses of Parliament, Oct. 22, 1969. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The lady in red chiffon is Conservative Party leader, Margaret Thatcher at her London home, Feb. 1, 1976, prior to leaving for her meeting with constituents at Barnet, Finchley. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tory leader Margaret Thatcher holding up five one-pound notes during a speech on April 30, 1976 at the Conservative headquarters in her Finchley, North London, constituency. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A library picture taken of Conservative Party leader Mrs. Margaret Thatcher in a jubilant mood outside her Chelsea, London, home in November 1976, after Tory victories in by-elections at two former Labour strongholds â Workington and Walsall North. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Mrs. Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis, at The Town Hall in London's Hendon, Friday, May 4, 1979 where she heard she had been re-elected at Finchley with a big increase in majority. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Conservative Party leader Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, wearing a fire chief's helmet during a visit to the London Fire Brigade's Finchley fire station in London, in October 1979. (credit:AP)
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