Margaret Thatcher, 'Iron Lady' of British politics, dead at 87

London: Margaret Thatcher, a towering, divisive and yet revered figure who left an enduring impact on British politics, died Monday of a stroke, her family said.

"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning," a statement from her spokesman, Lord Tim Bell, said.

Ms Thatcher had been in poor health for months. She served as prime minister for 11 years, beginning in 1979. (Read: Margaret Thatcher's political journey)

She was known variously as the Iron Lady, a stern Conservative who transformed Britain's way of thinking about its economic and political life, broke union power and opened the way to far greater private ownership.

She was leader of Britain through its 1982 war in the Falklands and stamped her skepticism about European integration onto her country's political landscape for decades.