Did Maggie Thatcher ever take a job
in a Lyons Tea House serving tea?
Was she ever called a 'nippy' as
she sped around the tables with a tray?
A myth has spread itself that this was so,
but it's fake news. She never stooped so low.
She did however work for Lyons as
a chemist after graduating from
the University of Oxford with
a BSc in nineteen forty eight.
She preferred in later life to say
she was the first PM with a degree
in science rather than the first to be
a woman (re biographer Charles Moore).
Her tutor was the Nobel laureate
Professor Dotty Hodgkin who had trialled
penicillin in the years before
Margaret went up. At Lyons she
researched dried egg and how a sandwich might
behave at altitude. She also helped
emulsify ice-cream which then became
the light, aerated Mr Whippy brand.
The Iron Lady in confectionery!