MARGARET Thatcher used the pseudonym "Mrs Stone" when travelling to the United States, newly-released official documents show.
A declassified US Department of State file shows the former prime minister, who was dubbed the Iron Lady, travelled under the name in December 2002 when flying into Miami.
Mrs Thatcher's pseudonym was disclosed following a freedom of information request.
The document released reveals correspondence from the US embassy in London to the US Secretary of State, listed under the subject "protective security - travel of Margaret Thatcher to the US".
It stated that she would arrive at Miami International Airport "on Flight BA 2013 1815 under the name of Mrs Stone. She will be accompanied by two armed police officers."
Thatcher remained popular in the US long after her resignation as prime minister in 1990.
Following her death in April 2013, US president Barack Obama paid tribute, saying many Americans will never forget Mrs Thatcher "standing shoulder to shoulder" with Ronald Reagan during his presidency in the 1980s.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article