Lord Tebbit was a devoted husband and was married to his wife Margaret for more than 60 years before she died in 2020. But the couple’s marriage was tested when they were caught up in an IRA blast
By day, Norman Tebbit was a close ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but behind the scenes he was a devoted husband to his wife Margaret.
But the couple certainly had their challenges – and were caught up in a blast meant for the Prime Minister – during the Tory party conference in 1984.
After meeting at Westminster Hospital, London in 1955, Margaret and Norman married a year later at Westminster Congregational Chapel and stayed together until she died in 2020.
The couple were lying in bed on October 12, 1984 when the IRA bombed the Brighton Grand Hotel which killed five people and injured 31 more. Margaret Tebbit was paralysed in the bombing when the ceiling collapsed on her and Lord Tebbit.
Falling through four floors and remaining trapped for several hours, they laid together, holding hands, waiting for help. Norman gave Margaret a message to give to their children, in case he died.
He suffered a broken shoulder blade, fractured vertebrae, a cracked collar bone and needed plastic surgery – but was back at his desk within three months. However, Margaret was much more seriously injured than her husband.
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Her injuries were so bad that she spent two years in Stoke Mandeville Hospital and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital undergoing treatment in their spinal injuries units. And while she recovered some use of her hands and arms, she was unable to walk for the rest of her life.
Norman looked after his wife until she died in 2020 and left the cabinet following the 1987 general election to care for her. Lady Tebbit died at home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 19 December 2020 at the age of 86 after suffering from Lewy body dementia.
Lord Tebbit remained angry about how the bombing changed his wife’s life, saying there was “no possibility of any forgiveness” for the people behind the bombing. He once said: “One can hope that there’s a particularly hot corner of hell reserved for them and they can repent in their own time there.”
And although Lady Tebbit said she couldn’t forgive the attack which left her paralysed from the chest down, she did say it was important not to dwell on the past. While appearing on Desert Island Discs in 1995 Lady Tebbit said:”I don’t blame people, I don’t completely forget or forgive, but one has to completely look forward.”
The bomb had been planted in the hotel by Patrick Magee who received eight life sentences but was later released under the Good Friday peace agreement in 1999. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was a paramilitary organisation fighting for Northern Ireland to be a part of the Republic of Ireland, rather than the United Kingdom. The target of the IRA’s Brighton bomb was Margaret Thatcher, who was prime minister at the time.
Lord Tebbit was MP for more than 20 years for Epping and then Chingford and served as Employment Secretary, Trade Secretary and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. After leaving the Commons in 1992, he was appointed to the House of Lords.
Margaret (nee Daines) was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire and became a nurse after leaving school. They had two sons and a daughter: John (67), Alison (65) and William (60).
In a statement, William Tebbit said: “At 11.15pm on 7th July 2025 Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94. His family ask that their privacy is respected at this time and a further statement regarding funeral arrangements will be made in due course.”
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