9 December 2011 Last updated at 14:02 ET

Margaret Thatcher's Belgrano critic Diana Gould dies, aged 85

A woman who criticised Margaret Thatcher in a TV debate over her actions during the Falklands War has died, aged 85.

Diana Gould, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, questioned Mrs Thatcher in 1983 over the sinking of the Argentine ship Belgrano.

Mrs Gould believed the prime minister had wrecked a potential peace proposal.

Her husband, Clifford, said she was particularly saddened by the sinking, and "wanted to get it off her chest".

He said she had been interested in that part of the world through studying geography at Cambridge.

'Unnecessary sinking'

"When the war broke out she was very saddened," said Mr Gould.

"She was saddened by the sinking of the Belgrano because after the war, she was calculating that all that was said about the reasons was based on wrong facts."

She wrote into the BBC's current affairs programme Nationwide, after hearing the public would be given the opportunity to ask Mrs Thatcher questions, and "much to her horror, she was accepted".

"Her feelings are that saddened as she was by the unnecessary sinking, it overshadowed the Peruvian peace plan that was going on at the time, so there was no possibility of peace and that was it," said Mr Gould.

"She said, 'if I am going to remembered I hope it will be that and not the sinking'."