Official booklet to mark the unveiling on 21st February 2007 of the bronze statue of Baroness Thatcher sculpted by Antony Dufort for the House of Commons. Edited by Malcolm Hay, Curator of Works of Art, Palace of Westminster.
Clay for the portrait head of Margaret Thatcher, June 2005 (Photo: Antony Dufort)
“This historic commission is a very fitting way to remember Margaret Thatcher’s time in the House of Commons and I am very pleased to welcome the statue joining those of the other Prime Ministers of the 20th Century in Members’ Lobby.” Rt. Hon. Michael Martin MP Speaker of the House of Commons
Baroness Thatcher is the latest 20th Century Prime Minister to be represented in Members’ Lobby immediately outside the House of Commons Debating Chamber. This over life-size bronze statue by Antony Dufort recognises her contribution to British politics during her three terms of office as premier and records her rightful place in parliamentary history as the United Kingdom’s first woman Prime Minister. Her statue looks towards the doors of the Commons Chamber, facing that of Sir Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon, which since the late 1960s has stood sentinel to this historic Chamber, its foot touched in the early years for good luck by Tory Members before giving speeches in the Chamber and more recently by all those visiting the House. Since then, statues of David Lloyd George and Clement Attlee have been added to this historic space, together with busts of James Ramsay MacDonald, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Edward Heath, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Stanley Baldwin and Alec Douglas-Home.
Above and right Antony Dufort and Baroness Thatcher at the sitting on 28 May 2004 (Photos: Matthew Tugwell)
The Parliamentary Art Collection of the House of Commons includes many painted and sculpted images of parliamentarians over the centuries, widely dispersed throughout the buildings