Margaret Thatcher's father said his daughter could be PM 'if she set her mind to it' Decades on, the visitor, one Alan Bennett (not the famous playwright), could still remember the "trivial but revealing" remark clearly when he wrote to Baroness Thatcher to congratulate her on her landslide victory in the June 1983 general election. Baroness Thatcher, at the time aged about 25 and working as a research chemist, served as president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and ran unsuccessfully for election in 1950 and 1951, but did not become an MP until 1959. Mr Bennett, who got to know Mr Roberts when he was working as a national savings commissioner in Grantham, said he thought about writing to the grocer when his daughter became prime minister in 1979 but concluded that he was probably no longer alive. He added: "He would have been so proud. In retrospect it seems that although circumstances perhaps limited somewhat his sphere of influence to more local community matters, his example and industry were setting a pattern for others to build on. What would he have thought of this present election triumph? Mr Bennett concluded by wishing the prime minister well in the coming years of government. "Your father, I know, would have no doubts about your ability to cope, and to me he seemed a pretty good judge," he wrote. Baroness Thatcher was clearly deeply touched by the letter, writing back: "I was extremely interested to read of your connection with my father and was delighted that you should have taken the trouble to write with some of your reminiscences."