FOR 35 years, Cynthia Crawford enjoyed privileged access to one of the world’s most intriguing, enigmatic and influential figures, Margaret Thatcher.

Today, speaking exclusively to your Worcester News and for the first time since the former Prime Minister’s death, the woman known affectionately as ‘Crawfie’ paints a unique and fascinating picture of the woman known around the globe as the Iron Lady, how she dedicated her life to her – and of her love for the county.

“I am privileged to have been by her side for the last 35 years,” she said, freely admitting the demands of the job were partly behind her decision never to have children.

“I admire her beyond words. It was a truly amazing experience and I gave my life to her, really,”

Since leaving Downing Street, Mrs Crawford revealed how Baroness Thatcher had developed a love for her own home county.

“She used to come here regularly and it eventually became an annual thing.

"She was very fond of Worcester, and Worcestershire,” Mrs Crawford said.

“During her time here she would go to the cricket ground. She wasn’t a huge fan of the game but they made such a fuss of her, she’d come up and have tea in the Ladies Pavilion.

“She would see the cathedral and go to the Royal Worcester Porcelain.

“She always enjoyed herself immensely.”

The former Kays factory worker, who still lives in Battenhall, became then-Mrs Thatcher’s assistant in 1978, just months before she entered Number 10.

She used to split her time between Worcester, where she lived with husband Ray, and London to be beside Lady T.

And 35 years later, now a widow, Mrs Crawford revealed she never ceased being at the call of the woman she refused to call ‘Margaret’, right until the last few months, as her health deteriorated in the run-up to her death.

But she said it was a career she would not have changed for the world.
“It was a very hard, demanding job but it was worth every single moment,” she said.

“For 35 years, it was a truly great privilege. “She led from the front, she really did, and it was the most amazing experience.”

The pair became so close they travelled the world on holiday together, visiting Florida, France, South Africa and Cornwall, as well as Malvern.

She recalls the day the Prime Minister said, “Do call me Margaret, Crawfie dear” – a request she could never agree to, always insisting on calling her ‘Mrs T’, or latterly, ‘Lady T’.

They were together when Mrs Thatcher wept privately for soldiers killed in the Falklands and they prayed together at their bedsides after bombers struck their Brighton hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party conference.

And for foreign trips, they spent hours planning the premier’s wardrobe, making sure an ensemble “never appeared at the same venue twice”.

Behind the title of personal assistant, Mrs Crawford said in reality, the pair were “confidantes, friends and great mates”.

The ever-faithful Mrs Crawford has returned to live full-time in the Faithful City, where she is now looking back on her remarkable experience as something to cherish for the rest of her life.

In a piece published this week in a national newspaper but written a year ago, Mrs Crawford said Lady Thatcher was “more than a remarkable lady”.

“It grieved me so much to see her decline into illness – I cannot recall it without tears,” she said.

“Actually, I loved her to bits.”