Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville

Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (1869–1940). Prime minister. Chamberlain was born in Birmingham, a son of Joseph Chamberlain. Educated at Rugby and Mason College, Birmingham, he seemed destined for a business career, but his election to the city council in 1911 provided an opportunity to display his talents as a municipal reformer. His record in local government led to appointments first as a member of the control board established to oversee the liquor trade during the First World War, and then as director‐general of national service (1916). In 1918, at the late age of 49, he was elected as a Conservative MP for Birmingham. Chamberlain had conceived a healthy dislike for Lloyd George, but supported the coalition government (1918–22). In 1922 his half‐brother Austen tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Conservative Party to maintain the coalition, but Neville agreed with Baldwin and Bonar Law that it had outlived its usefulness. In 1922, Chamberlain joined Bonar Law's government as postmaster‐general, becoming minister of health in 1923, chancellor of the Exchequer 1923–4, and returning to the health portfolio in Baldwin's second government (1924–9).

Chamberlain's years at the Ministry of Health established his claim to be one of the greatest social reformers in Britain in the 20th cent. At his urging the cabinet agreed to finance a widows', orphans';, and old‐age pensions bill in 1925. He initiated the great Local Government Act of 1929, which abolished the Poor Law Guardians, transferring the institutions they administered to the counties and county boroughs. Meanwhile, he was able to bring about a partnership between private builders and local authorities to build almost 1 million houses for the working classes.

At the general election of 1929 Baldwin's government was voted out. Chamberlain agreed to Baldwin's suggestion that he undertake a reorganization of Conservative central office, establishing a research department, but he used this period (1929–31) to work strenuously for the abandonment of free trade. During Baldwin's absence abroad Chamberlain represented the Conservative Party in the negotiations which led to the formation of the National Government and he held office in that administration as chancellor of the Exchequer.

Neville Chamberlain's years at the Treasury, coinciding with the depression of the 1930s, were years of challenge. In 1932 he persuaded the cabinet to agree to the abandonment of free trade: a general duty of 10 per cent was placed on almost all imports, except those from within the British empire. In 1934 he was able to restore earlier cuts in unemployment pay, and in 1935 to lower income tax. This policy of financial good housekeeping was blown off course by the need to rearm in the face of the Nazi menace, but his budgets assisted economic recovery, and put the nation's finances into a position whereby they were able to meet the demands of war in 1939.

In May 1937 when Baldwin resigned the premiership, Chamberlain's succession was automatic. Almost exactly three years later he resigned in a welter of criticism, triggered by Britain's withdrawal from Norway but largely informed by public disenchantment with his pre‐war foreign policy. Chamberlain's policy towards Nazi Germany is commonly associated with ‘appeasement’. But there was widespread agreement that Germany had been treated badly at Versailles in 1919. He saw it as his mission to prevent war with Germany and, if that could not be achieved, to postpone hostilities as long as possible. But he had been unable to prevent Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War, and Hitler's so‐called ‘invasion’ of Austria caught him off guard. His policy during the Czech crisis September 1938) was undermined by the unwillingness of the French to fulfil their treaty obligations towards the Czechs. None the less, Chamberlain's dramatic airline flight to Berchtesgaden (15 September), to meet Hitler, was tremendously popular at home, and his second visit, to sign the Munich agreement, was at the time hailed as a triumph.

In 1939, in relation to the British guarantee of Poland's borders, Chamberlain saw that appeasement was at an end. He was then seen as a gullible English gentleman totally outmanœuvred by a ruthless Führer. In May 1940 he resigned to make way for Winston Churchill, and died shortly afterwards.