Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher; his sister is Carol Thatcher. His early career in business led to suggestions that he was benefiting from his mother's position, notably in relation to the Al-Yamamah arms deal. He left the UK in 1986, and has since lived in the United States, Switzerland, Monaco, South Africa, Gibraltar, Barbados, Guernsey, and Spain. In 2004 the Sunday Times estimated his wealth at £60 million, most of which was suggested to be in offshore accounts. In 2005, he was convicted and given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined in South Africa for funding the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt. He has two children by his first wife, Diane Burgdorf. He married his second wife, Sarah-Jane Russell (née Clemence), in 2008. After his father's death in 2003, he became Sir Mark Thatcher and succeeded to the Thatcher baronetcy, a hereditary title which had unusually been given to his father in 1990 (this being the only baronetcy created since 1964). Early life Thatcher and his twin sister, Carol, were born six weeks prematurely by caesarean section on 15 August 1953 at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, the same year that their mother qualified as a barrister. Their early years were spent in Chelsea, London. Their mother was narrowly defeated in her bid to become the Conservative Party candidate in the 1955 Orpington by-election. She was first elected to Parliament at the 1959 general election. The children, aged six at the time, featured in her first television interview. His sister observed: "All my childhood memories of my mother were just someone who was superwoman before the phrase had been invented. She was always flat out, she never relaxed, household chores were done at breakneck speed in order to get back to the parliamentary correspondence or get on with making up a speech." Mark was sent to board at Belmont School at the age of eight and then to Harrow School, which he left in 1971 having passed three O Level exams. He went on to study accountancy but failed his accountancy exams with Touche Ross on three occasions. Having taken various short-term jobs Thatcher moved to Hong Kong, where he built up a network of business