Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville

Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (1869–1940),British Conservative prime minister from May 1937 to May 1940. His policy of appeasement when dealing with Hitler—it was his signature on the Munich agreement—earned him a post-war reputation for weakness, though it has been cogently argued that appeasement was essential to gain time for rearmament. In fact he was a determined and principled politician, who strove to maintain peace by pursuing what was at the time an almost universally accepted policy. His real, and fatal, weakness lay in his inability to comprehend the type of man with whom he was dealing, and continuing to strive for compromise for far longer than was prudent. He also had an unfortunate habit of mistiming his public announcements, saying for example that Hitler had ‘missed the bus’ just before the Germans invaded Norway in April 1940 (see Norwegian campaign). The debate on Norway in the House of Commons turned into a personal attack on Chamberlain, and though the government retained a comfortable majority (81) when the vote was taken on 8 May, he had obviously lost the confidence of his supporters. On 9 May he summoned his two most likely successors, Halifax and Churchill, to a meeting with the chief whip, David Margesson. He said that he doubted if he could continue and offered the premiership to Halifax, who refused it, and it then became evident that the mantle would fall on Churchill. That same evening Chamberlain asked the Labour Party if it would serve in a national government under him. It refused and though Chamberlain hesitated to resign when Hitler's attack was launched the next morning (see FALL GELB), he was soon left in no doubt by his erstwhile supporters that he had little choice but to do so. However, he remained the leader of the Conservative Party, and retained powerful backing amongst Conservative backbenchers. He served in Churchill's cabinet as Lord President of the Council, his last political act being to draw up the charter for SOE, in mid-July 1940. Illness forced him to resign in October 1940, and he died of cancer the following month. See also origins of the war and UK, 3.