Days Gone By: Looking back to when Margaret Thatcher visited Felixstowe Docks in 1983


Sam Dawes

Meeting workers around the docks Picture: JOHN KERR

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher paid a visit to Felixstowe Docks just months before the General Election of 1983 - were you one of those who met the Iron Lady during her tour?


She was taken around all the different structures around the docks  Picture: JOHN KERR
The PM had suffered a rocky start to her premiership with unemployment rates rising and the country in recession. However, by 1983 the situation was beginning to change.
Showing the Iron Lady around the docks  Picture: JOHN KERR
During her visit to Felixstowe she won many admirers by climbing a quayside crane to get a bird’s-eye view of the port. 
The Iron Lady on her visit to Felixstowe Docks  Picture: JOHN KERR
Two months after her visit to Felixstowe Docks, Thatcher called a General Election which lead to the most decisive victory since Labour’s victory in 1945.
Looking up at the vast structures around the docks  Picture: JOHN KERR
She held office until 1990 when John Major took over at Number 10.
Seeing the sights around Felixstowe Docks  Picture: JOHN KERR
This was not the only time Thatcher had visited Felixstowe. She also addressed the Conservative Central Council at the Spa Pavilion in 1986.
Photographers swarming as Margaret Thatcher talks to workers at Felixstowe Docks  Picture: JOHN KERR

Before anybody shoots the messenger !!!! I liked this women twice - The Falkland Islands and telling Europe to do one. Then we had the Dockers / Miners and the British ship building industry destroyed big time.http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/gallery-margaret-thatcher-felixstowe-dock-visit-1983-1-5629010


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