Number 10 Downing Street

Neville Chamberlain was born to a political family, being the youngest son of Joseph Chamberlain, a Victorian Cabinet Minister, and the half-brother of Austen, a Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was educated at Rugby and Mason College, Birmingham.

When he was 21 Chamberlain left for the Bahamas to manage a 20,000 acre estate a venture which eventually failed. But he gained a reputation for being a hands-on manager, taking a strong interest in the day to day running of affairs.

On his return he became prominent manufacturer in Birmingham, where he was elected a councillor in 1911 and Lord Mayor in 1915.

Lloyd George appointed him Director-General of the Department of National Service in 1916, but personal bitterness between the two men led to his resignation within one year.

In 1918 Chamberlain was elected Conservative MP for Ladywood, but refused to serve under Lloyd George in coalition government. In 1922 he became Postmaster General under Bonar Law, where he proved his judgement and ability.

He was made Minister of Health within months and, under Baldwin, Chancellor of the Exchequer all in little more than a year, and within five years of entering Parliament.

Chamberlain’s Local Government Act of 1929 reformed the Poor Law, effectively laying the foundations of the welfare state, and reorganised local government finance.

Economic crisis

In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald made Chamberlain Chancellor in his National Government, and Baldwin retained him in turn. During the economic crisis, he achieved his father’s protectionist ambitions by passing the Import Duties Bill in 1932.

In May 1937 he succeeded Baldwin as Prime Minister, and was elected Conservative leader.

War was brewing in Europe, and had already exploded in Spain. Chamberlain was unwilling to go down in history as responsible for an inevitably destructive war without doing everything possible to prevent it. Neville Chamberlain, as with many in Europe who had witnessed the horrors of the First World War and its aftermath, was committed to peace at almost any price.

Chamberlain famously met German chancellor Adolf Hitler in Munich 1938 the result of which was an agreement that Britain and Germany would never again go to war.  He declared on his return to the UK;

“I believe it is peace for our time.”

However, the success of ‘appeasement’ was shortlived, as Hitler occupied Prague the following year.

The subsequent invasion of Poland forced Chamberlain’s hand, and he declared war on 3 September, 1939. He soon came under attack from all political sides after the disastrous first months of war when Germany look set for a rapid victory.

Unable to form a national government himself, he resigned in May 1940 after the failure of the British efforts to liberate Norway.

Bowel cancer struck soon after, forcing him to leave Churchill’s coalition government. On his death bed he garnered the strength to whisper

“approaching dissolution brings relief .”