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Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. Chamberlain is best known for appeasement foreign policy, in particular regarding his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany, and for his "containment" policy of Germany in 1939 that culminated in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939. After working in business and local government and a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father and older half-brother in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election at age 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until he was appointed Postmaster General after the 1922 general election. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer but presented no budget before the government fell in 1924.

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 coalition National Government in 1931 and spent six years reducing the war debt and the tax burden. When Stanley Baldwin retired after the abdication of Edward VIII and the coronation of George VI, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister in 1937. In 1938, he returned the so-called Treaty Ports to the Irish Free State.

Chamberlain was forced to resign the premiership on 10 May 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well regarded in Parliament. Before ill health forced him to resign, he was an important member of Churchill's War Cabinet. He had a key role in the formation of the Special Operations Executive. Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving the premiership.

Early life

Chamberlain was born in a house called Southbourne, in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham, England. He was the eldest son of the second marriage of Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Mayor of Birmingham, and a half-brother (and cousin through their mothers) to Austen, later Sir Austen. Joseph's first wife died giving birth to Austen; Neville's mother also died in childbirth in 1875, when Neville was six years old. The Chamberlain children found their relations with their father strained, and Neville grew up developing strong bonds with those siblings who were closest to him in age, most notably his sisters Ida and Hilda, to whom he wrote every week while away from them. Neville Chamberlain was a cousin of actor Alan Napier.

Chamberlain was educated at Rugby School. At first he declined to join the school debating society, changing his mind only in 1886 when he spoke in favour of preserving the United Kingdom, agreeing with his Liberal Unionist father's opposition over Irish Home Rule. It was during this period that Chamberlain developed a love of botany, and later became a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. He was also fascinated by ornithology and fishing. Chamberlain had a passion for music and literature, and in later life would often quote William Shakespeare in public debates.

After leaving school, Chamberlain became a student at Mason Science College (later the University of Birmingham), as one of only eleven Prime Ministers not to have attended either Oxford or Cambridge universities. He studied science, mathematics and metallurgy and shortly after completing his studies became apprenticed to an accounting firm.

In 1890, Joseph Chamberlain's finances took a downturn, and he decided, against better advice from his brothers, to try growing sisal in the Bahamas. Neville and Austen were sent to the Americas to investigate the island of Andros, which seemed a good prospect for a plantation, but the crops failed in the unsuitable environment, and by 1896 the business was shut down at a heavy loss.

Neville Chamberlain's later ventures at home were more successful. He served as chairman of several manufacturing firms in Birmingham, including Elliots (a metal goods manufacturer) and Hotskins (a cabin berth manufacturer). He gained a reputation for being a hands-on manager, taking a strong interest in the day-to-day running of affairs.

Lord Mayor of Birmingham

Although he campaigned for his father and brother during elections, Chamberlain did not enter politics on his own behalf until November 1911 when he was elected to Birmingham City Council and immediately became chairman of the Town Planning Committee. That January, though he had settled into bachelorhood, he married Anne Vere Cole, with whom he had two children, a daughter, Dorothy Ethel (1911-1994; m. Stephen Lloyd) and a son, Francis Neville (1914-1965; m. Parrott). Under Chamberlain's direction, Birmingham soon adopted one of the first town planning schemes in Britain. In 1913, he took charge of a committee looking at housing conditions. The interim report of the committee could not be implemented immediately because of the war, but it did much to show Chamberlain's vision of improvements to housing. In 1915, like his father before him, he became Lord Mayor of Birmingham. Within the first two months, he had won government approval to increase the electricity supply, and he organised the use of coal as part of the war effort; he also prevented a strike by council workers. During this time he assisted in the creation of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the establishment of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, the only one of its type in the country, which aimed to encourage savings to pay for the war loan. The bank proved highly successful and lasted until 1976. Chamberlain was re-elected Lord Mayor in 1916, but he did not complete his term.

Early ministerial career

In December 1916, Chamberlain was in London when he received a message asking him to meet the new Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. In a brief meeting, Lloyd George offered Chamberlain the new position of Director of National Service, with responsibility for coordinating conscription and ensuring that essential war industries were able to function with sufficient workforces. Chamberlain had been recommended for the position by several people, including his brother Austen, and he agreed to accept the post; despite several interviews, however, he was left unclear about many aspects of the job. Over the following eight months only a few thousand volunteers were placed in industry. Chamberlain clashed several times with Lloyd George, who had taken a strong dislike to him, thus making the position even harder to operate. Chamberlain resigned in 1917. He and Lloyd George retained a mutual contempt that lasted throughout their political careers.

Embittered by his failure, Chamberlain decided to stand in the next general election, when he was elected, at age 49 — by far the oldest age for any future Prime Minister entering Parliament to date — for Birmingham Ladywood. He was offered a junior post at the Ministry of Health but declined it, refusing to serve a Lloyd George government. He also declined a knighthood. Chamberlain spent the next four years as a Conservative backbencher, despite his half-brother Austen becoming leader of Conservative MPs in 1921.

In October 1922, discontent amongst Conservatives against the Lloyd George Coalition Government erupted. At a meeting at the Carlton Club, the majority of MPs voted to leave the coalition, even though it meant abandoning their current leadership, since Austen had pledged to support Lloyd George. Neville was on his way home from Canada at the time of the meeting and so was not forced to choose between supporting his brother's leadership and bringing down a man he despised.

The new Conservative Prime Minister, Andrew Bonar Law, offered Chamberlain the position of Postmaster General, outside Cabinet. There was much discussion amongst the Chamberlain family as to whether he should accept; in the end, Austen reluctantly agreed to allow Neville to accept the post. He also became a member of the Privy Council.

In 1922, the Conservatives won the general election, but the Minister of Health, Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen, lost his seat and failed to win a by-election. To fill the position, Law chose Chamberlain. In this position, he introduced a Housing Act that provided subsidies for private companies building affordable housing as a first step towards a programme of slum clearances. He also introduced the Rent Restriction Act, which limited evictions and required rents to be linked to the property's state of repair. Chamberlain's main interest lay in housing, and becoming the Minister of Health gave him a chance to spread these ideas on a national basis. These ideas stemmed from his father, Joseph Chamberlain.

The following month Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister and after serving as his own Chancellor of the Exchequer for three months whilst he sought a successor, he promoted Chamberlain to a position which he held until the government fell in January 1924. His first Chancellorship was unusual in that he presented no budget.

Chamberlain remained one of the leading Conservative figures, but he faced a significant challenge in the 1924 general election from Oswald Mosley, head

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