Alfred Roberts (18 April 1892 – 10 February 1970) was a grocer, a lay preacher, an alderman and a Mayor of Grantham. He was the father of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... In religious organizations, the laity comprises all lay persons collectively. ... An alderman is a member of a municipal legislative body in a town or city with many jurisdictions. ... A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning larger,greater) is the politician who serves as chief executive official of some types of municipalities. ... Grantham is a small market town in Lincolnshire, England with about 40,000 inhabitants. ... Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. ... The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is a complete wanker and pussy boy is the head of government and so exercises many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ...

Roberts was born in Ringstead and grew up in Northamptonshire. He was the eldest of seven children. His bad eyesight meant he could not enter the family trade of shoemaking. He left school at thirteen in order to help support his family and moved to Grantham where gained a job as an apprentice in a grocery store. When World War I broke out in 1914, Roberts, 'a deeply patriotic man' ^[1], applied to enlist in the army six times but was rejected because of his poor eyesight. Ringstead is a small village situated in Northamptonshire, England and is located approximately 15 miles to north-east of Northampton in the Nene Valley. ... Northamptonshire (abbreviated Northants or Nhants) is a landlocked county in central England with a population of 629,676 (2001 census). ... Grantham aka G-Town is a small market town in Lincolnshire, England with about 38,000 inhabitants. ... A shop that sells food, either a Supermarket or a much smaller place. ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead:5 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:8 million Military dead:4 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:7 million The First World...

Four years after living in Grantham, Roberts met Beatrice Ethel Stephenson through the local Methodist church, which he attended every Sunday. They married on May 28, 1917 and had two daughters: Muriel (1921-2004) and Margaret (born 1925). In 1919 they bought the grocery shop and in 1923 Roberts opened a second shop. He took one week off work every year to compete in the annual bowls tournament at Skegness. He was a religious man and also a routine lay preacher who met prominent Methodists such as Leslie Weatherhead and Donald Soper. The Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Men playing bowls Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Bowls Bowls (also known as Lawn Bowls or Lawn Bowling) is a precision sport where the goal is to roll slightly radially asymmetrical balls (called bowls) closer to a smaller white ball (the jack or kitty) than ones opponent... Skegness is a seaside resort town in Lincolnshire, England, with a permanent population of about 30,000. ... Leslie D. Weatherhead (1893-1976) was an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition. ... Donald Oliver Soper (31st January, 1903 - 22nd December, 1998), later known as Lord Soper, was a prominent Methodist minister, socialist and pacifist. ...

Roberts was an 'old-fashioned liberal' ^[2] who believed strongly in individual responsibility and sound finance. He came from a family that traditionally voted Liberal and read and admired John Stuart Mill's On Liberty but believed that the Liberal Party had embraced collectivism and that the Conservatives stood for the old liberalism.^[3] In the 1935 general election, Roberts helped the local Conservative candidate Victor Warrender to win the seat. The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party (the SDP) to form a new party which would become... John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873), an English philosopher and political economist, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. ... On Liberty is a philosophical work in the English language by 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill, first published in 1859. ... Collectivism is a term used to describe any doctrine that stresses the importance of a collective, rather than the importance of the individual. ... The Conservative Party is the second-largest piece political party in the United Kingdom and the most successful party in political history based on election victories. ... Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee The UK general election held on 14th November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin. ... The Right Honourable Sir Victor Alexander George Anthony Warrender, 1st Baron Bruntisfield MC (23 June 1899–14 January 1993) was a Conservative politician. ... Grantham was a Parliamentary constituency in Lincolnshire, England. ...

In 1927 Roberts was elected to the Grantham town council as the Ratepayers' Association candidate. He was also a part-time Justice of the Peace. He soon became Chairman of the Finance and Rating Committee, and in 1943 he was elected by the council as an Alderman and then served as the Mayor of Grantham from November 1945 to 1946, in which he presided over the town's victory celebrations. In his inaugural speech Roberts called for a large programme of expenditure to rebuild the roads, public transport, health and social services for children and to "build houses by the thousand." ^[4] A Justice of the Peace (JP) is someone appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. ... An alderman is a member of a municipal legislative body in a town or city with many jurisdictions. ...

On May 21, 1952 Roberts was voted out as Alderman by the first Labour majority on the council and as the vote was taken he proclaimed: "It is now almost nine years since I took up these robes in honour, and now I trust in honour they are laid down." ^[5] When his daughter Margaret recalled this event over thirty years later during an interview with Miriam Stoppard she said it was "very emotional" and wept on television.^[6] May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... Miriam Stoppard (nee Miriam Moore-Robinson) is a British physician, author, television presenter and agony aunt. ...

Roberts retired and sold his business in 1958 but continued to preach and remained active in the Rotary Club. After Beatrice died in 1960 Roberts remarried in 1965 to Cecily Miriam Hubbard. Roberts died in 1970. Logo of Rotary International Rotary International is an organisation whose members comprise Rotary Clubs (service clubs) located all over the world. ...

Notes

• 1 Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (HarperCollins, 1995), p. 4.
• 2 Ibid, p. 21.
• 3 Ibid, p. 65.
• 4 Hugo Young, One of Us (Pan, 1990), p. 10.
• 5 Thatcher, p. 21.
• 6 Young, p. 308.

References

• Chris Ogden, Maggie (Simon and Schuster, 1990).
• Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (HarperCollins, 1995).
• Hugo Young, One of Us (Pan, 1990).

Hugo John Smelter Young (October 13, 1938 - September 22, 2003) was a British journalist and columnist and The Guardians senior political commentator. ...

External links

• Photograph of Roberts laying down his robes as Alderman in 1952