IN JULY 2005, Baroness Thatcher came to Salisbury to attend the funeral of her former boss turned political rival Sir Edward Heath.

Accompanied by many of her former colleagues, Baroness Thatcher joined the 1,600 mourners in the cathedral for the service conducted by the former Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Reverend David Stancliffe.

Baroness Thatcher supported Sir Edward in the 1965 Conservative leadership election and when he became prime minister five years later she was promoted to the Cabinet as education secretary.

Her brief included spending cuts, leading to her scrapping free school milk for seven to 11-year-olds and her opponents branding her “Margaret Thatcher, milk snatcher.”

After Sir Edward’s government collapsed in February 1974, Baroness Thatcher stood against him in the following year’s Conservative leadership contest and won, becoming the first woman to lead a major British political party.

Four years later she was the country’s first female prime minister.

Former Salisbury MP Robert Key, who was a close friend of Sir Edward’s and eventually found him his house Arundells in the Cathedral Close, was appointed as Heath’s private parliamentary secretary.

“There followed many difficult standoffs with Margaret at No 10, in which I worked with her private parliamentary secretary to defuse tricky parliamentary stand-offs,” said Mr Key. “I was always grateful for this opportunity to learn the art of the possible in British politics.”