A DARTFORD Conservative activist has recalled helping Margaret Thatcher out of a tight spot before a trip to see the Queen.

Back in 1950, Dorothy Shakespeare was approached by the then Margaret Roberts who was short of a pair of stockings before the first Buckingham Palace garden party she was ever invited to.

Luckily for the future Prime Minister Mrs Shakespeare, now 84, knew a black market stall near Victoria Station where a pair could be had.

The former teacher and civilian assistant with Special Branch at Scotland Yard, says the young Conservative parliamentary candidate for Dartford was very grateful for the help.

She told News Shopper: "Clothes were still rationed in those days and I got Margaret her stockings to wear to Buckingham Palace quite illegally.

"It was quite respectable though and everybody did it.

"I don’t think there were any nylon stockings being made in England at the time."

News Shopper: Margaret Thatcher in Dartford in 1951

Margaret Roberts in Dartford on February 24, 1951, with her Conservative 'brains trust' (image courtesy of Kent Libraries and Archives (Dartford Library)).

Mrs Shakespeare, who was born in Dartford but now lives in Monks Orchard, Wilmington, also welcomed the young Miss Roberts to tea one day at her parents’ terraced home in Colney Road, which is the other side of town to Knole Road where her visitor was staying with a family at the time.

The activist hosted Britain’s future leader before a party meeting of the St Alban’s Ward Conservative Association - but can’t remember what was on the menu.

She does recall clearly the words of the chairman of a party meeting held on February 22, 1950 - the eve of that year’s general election.

Mrs Shakespeare said: "When it was finished the chairman of the meeting got up and said: ‘Ladies and gentleman I would like you know you have just been listening to the future Prime Minister’.

"I thought ‘not in my lifetime’ but I am glad he was right and I was wrong."

News Shopper: Margaret Thatcher in Dartford in 1984.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher greets Mayor of Dartford RF Maxted at the opening of Thatcher Court sheltered housing complex in 1984. Roger Duck stands behind him and on the extreme right is Dartford Council leader Malcolm Nothard (image courtesy of Kent Libraries and Archives (Dartford Library)).

Mrs Thatcher lost both the 1950 and 1951 general elections as Dartford candidate but met her future husband Denis in 1951 at a Paint Trades Federation function in the town.

Denis Thatcher ran the Atlas Preservatives paint company based in Erith, which shared an MP with Dartford at the time.

His wife, who was Prime Minister for 11 years from 1979 to 1990, died from a stroke in her suite at the Ritz Hotel on Monday morning (April 8)

Her funeral next Wednesday (April 17) at St Paul’s Cathedral will be attended by the Queen and Prince Philip - more than six decades after that first garden party.