Mark Thatcher

Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of

In 2005, he was convicted and given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined in South Africa for funding the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup attempt.^[2]

He has two children by his first wife, Diane Burgdorf. He married his second wife, Sarah-Jane Russell (née Clemence), in 2008.

Thatcher and his twin sister, Carol, were born six weeks prematurely by caesarean section on 15 August 1953 at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, the same year that their mother qualified as a barrister.^[6] Their early years were spent in Chelsea, London.^[7] Their mother was narrowly defeated in her bid to become the Conservative Party candidate in the 1955 Orpington by-election. She was first elected to Parliament at the 1959 general election. The children, aged six at the time, featured in her first television interview.^[7] His sister observed: "All my childhood memories of my mother were just someone who was superwoman before the phrase had been invented. She was always flat out, she never relaxed, household chores were done at breakneck speed in order to get back to the parliamentary correspondence or get on with making up a speech."^[7]

Mark was sent to board at

Having taken various short-term jobs Thatcher moved to Hong Kong, where he built up a network of business connections, particularly in the Middle East and in motor racing. In 1977 he set up Mark Thatcher Racing, which ran into financial difficulties.^[9]

On 9 January 1982 Thatcher, his French driver, Anny-Charlotte Verney, and their mechanic went missing for six days in the Sahara whilst driving a Peugeot 504 in the Paris-Dakar Rally. They were declared missing on 12 January. His father flew to Dakar, where a large-scale search was launched, including six military aircraft from three countries and Algerian ground troops.^{[citation needed]}

On 14 January, the

• "I've now raced in Le Mans and other things – this rally is no problem."^[11]

In 2004, Thatcher wrote about his experience:

• "I did absolutely no preparation. Nothing."^[12]
• "We must have hit something. ... We stopped. The others stopped too, took a note of where we were and went on. But the silly bastards – instead of telling everyone we were 25 miles east when they finished the section, they told them we were 25 miles west."^[12]
• "So The Boss (the prime minister) does entirely the right thing, picks up the phone to the ambassador in Algiers and says, "Can you find out what is going on?" The ambassador then rings the prefect of the region who says there are four people missing and that I am one of them."^[12]

During the mid to late 1980s, concerns were frequently expressed about possible conflicts of interest between his business interests and his mother's political visits. In 1984 his mother faced questions in the House of Commons about his involvement in representing the bid of Cementation, a British company and a subsidiary of Trafalgar House, to build a university in Oman at a time when the prime minister was urging Omanis to buy British.^[9]

He has denied claims that in 1985 he received millions of pounds in commissions in relation to the £45 billion

In the United States he started Monteagle Marketing, a profitable company that sold whisky and clothing.^[16] During this period he spent some time in Switzerland as a tax exile, until he was forced to leave after the Swiss authorities began to question his residency qualifications.^[14] A security alarm business he ran in the United States failed and in 1996 he was prosecuted for tax evasion, at which point he moved to Constantia, South Africa, with his wife and their two children.^[13][16]

In 1998 South African authorities investigated a company owned by Thatcher for allegedly running

Thatcher was arrested at his home in Constantia, Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2004 and was charged with contravening two sections of South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act, which bans South African residents from taking part in any foreign military activity. The charges related to possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea organized by Thatcher's friend, Simon Mann. He was released on 2 million rand bail.^[20]

On 24 November 2004, the Cape Town

During his trial in Equatorial Guinea in June 2008 Simon Mann said that Thatcher "was not just an investor, he came completely on board and became a part of the management team" of the coup plot.[21] In 2024, Mann provided The Daily Telegraph with access to emails and unpublished memoirs providing additional information. On the 20th anniversary of the coup attempt, the newspaper published an article on the coup which states the emails "show that Sir Mark negotiated a profit-sharing arrangement".^[22]

Thatcher moved to Dallas, Texas, in the mid-1980s, where he met his first wife, Diane Burgdorf (later wife of James Beckett), in 1987.^[16][23] Their first child was born in 1989, and their second child was born in 1993.^[24] In 1992, he became The Honourable Mark Thatcher when his mother was made a life peer. In 1996, he moved to South Africa following financial scandals in the United States.^[9]

In 2003, he became The Honourable Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet of Scotney when he succeeded to the hereditary

Following his guilty plea and his divorce, he left South Africa in 2005 for Monaco on a one-year temporary residency permit, while his wife and children returned to the United States.^[26] Thatcher was unable to get a US visa due to his South African conviction and remains barred from entering the United States.^[27]

His Monaco residency was not renewed as he was said to be on a list of "undesirables" who would not be allowed further residency and he was required to leave by mid-2006.

He was in Barbados when he received news of his mother's death. He returned to the UK to act as chief mourner at her funeral, which took place at St Paul's Cathedral, London, on 17 April 2013.^[13]

In April 2016, Thatcher was named in the Panama Papers scandal; he has ownership of a house in Barbados as the beneficiary of a trust.^[31]

In 2019, he became a grandfather.^[32]

Thatcher is entitled the usage of the pre-nominal style "The Honourable" following the elevation of his mother to the peerage as a baroness in 1992; he shares this courtesy with his twin sister,

Arms

Coat of arms of The Honorable Sir Mark Thatcher, Bt.

Crest A demi-lion rampant Or within a circlet of New Zealand ferns Argent, holding between the fore-paws a pair of shears proper.[34][page needed] Escutcheon Gules, two chevrons Or between three crosses moline Argent. On a chief Azure, between two fleurs-de-lis Argent, a mural crown Or masoned Gules.[34][page needed]

References