Neville Chamberlain

Neville Chamberlain
Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1921
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
28 May 1937 – 10 May 1940
MonarchGeorge VI
Preceded byStanley Baldwin
Succeeded byWinston Churchill
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office
27 May 1937 – 9 October 1940
ChairmanSir Douglas Hacking
Preceded byStanley Baldwin
Succeeded byWinston Churchill
Ministerial offices
Lord President of the Council
In office
10 May 1940 – 3 October 1940
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byThe Earl Stanhope
Succeeded bySir John Anderson
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
5 November 1931 – 28 May 1937
Prime Minister
Preceded byPhilip Snowden
Succeeded bySir John Simon
In office
27 August 1923 – 22 January 1924
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Preceded byStanley Baldwin
Succeeded byPhilip Snowden
Minister of Health
In office
25 August 1931 – 5 November 1931
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byArthur Greenwood
Succeeded byHilton Young
In office
6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Preceded byJohn Wheatley
Succeeded byArthur Greenwood
In office
7 March 1923 – 27 August 1923
Prime Minister
Preceded bySir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen
Succeeded bySir William Joynson-Hicks
Paymaster General
In office
5 February 1923 – 15 March 1923
Prime MinisterBonar Law
Preceded bySir Tudor Walters
Succeeded bySir William Joynson-Hicks
Postmaster General
In office
31 October 1922 – 12 March 1923
Prime MinisterBonar Law
Preceded byFrederick Kellaway
Succeeded bySir William Joynson-Hicks
Parliamentary offices
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Edgbaston
In office
30 May 1929 – 9 November 1940
Preceded bySir Francis Lowe
Succeeded bySir Peter Bennett
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Ladywood
In office
14 December 1918 – 10 May 1929
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byWilfrid Whiteley
Personal details
Born
Arthur Neville Chamberlain

(1869-03-18)18 March 1869
Birmingham, England
Died9 November 1940(1940-11-09) (aged 71)
Heckfield, England
Resting placeWestminster Abbey
Political partyConservative
Other political
affiliations
Liberal Unionist Party
Spouse
(m. 1911)
Children2
Parent
EducationRugby School
Alma materMason College
Occupation
  • Businessman
  • politician
SignatureA neatly written "Neville Chamberlain"

Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS (/ˈmbərlɪn/; 18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.

After working in business and local government, and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father Joseph Chamberlain and elder half-brother Austen Chamberlain in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election for the new Birmingham Ladywood division at the age of 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short-lived Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931.

Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister on 28 May 1937. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards an increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among the British at the time. In response to Hitler's continued aggression, Chamberlain pledged the United Kingdom to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought his country into war after the German invasion of Poland. The failure of Allied forces to prevent the German invasion of Norway caused the House of Commons to hold the historic Norway Debate in May 1940. Chamberlain's conduct of the war was heavily criticised by members of all parties and, in a vote of confidence, his government's majority was greatly reduced. Accepting that a national government supported by all the main parties was essential, Chamberlain resigned the premiership because the Labour and Liberal parties would not serve under his leadership. Although he still led the Conservative Party, he was succeeded as prime minister by his colleague Winston Churchill. Until ill health forced him to resign on 22 September 1940, Chamberlain was an important member of the war cabinet as Lord President of the Council, heading the government in Churchill's absence. His support for Churchill proved vital during the May 1940 war cabinet crisis. Chamberlain died aged 71 on 9 November of cancer, six months after leaving the premiership.

Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians, the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, led by Churchill in The Gathering Storm. Some later historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the thirty-year rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared. Nonetheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British prime ministers.[1]

  1. ^ Strangio, Paul; et al. (2013). Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 224, 226. ISBN 978-0-19-966642-3. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2015.