A PENSIONER has told how Margaret Thatcher once gave her stranded parents shelter and breakfast as a young girl.

Langho woman Catherine McBride, 90, spoke out on the day of the former Prime Minister’s funeral to tell how her family had always held fond memories of the ‘Iron Lady’.

Mrs McBride’s parents had found themselves in Mrs Thatcher’s home town late at night, seeking a hotel room.

The couple had become stranded in Grantham while on the way to see their pilot son, who had been shot down while flying over home soil.

Catherine’s brother, Squadron leader George Walsh, was lying injured in a Lincolnshire hospital and his parents were desperate to reach him.

After Mr and Mrs Walsh were directed to the mayor’s house, he took the couple in, introducing them to his teenage daughter Margaret.

Mrs McBride, of Thirlmere, said said her family never forgot the kindness the Thatchers showed to them.

The families also exchanged Christmas cards for several years.

Mrs McBride said: “I was a WAF at the time stationed in Yorkshire. When I came home they were full of stories about their time in Grantham. It was late when Mother and Father arrived in town by train and they didn’t have any idea where to go. The station master directed them to the house of the mayor, who was Margaret’s father. He let them stay the night and Margaret, who was just a teenage girl, got them some breakfast the next morning.

“It was a very interesting tale my parents always loved to tell.

“They never forgot and you can imagine their surprise when she first became well known on the television. They recognised her at once.

“I have never forgotten either. Good memories last forever and her family did mine a very kind service.”