Adolf Arthur Dehn

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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.

Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (b. 18 Mar. 1869, d. 9 Nov. 1940). British Prime Minister 1937–40 Born in Birmingham, the son of Joseph Chamberlain and half-brother of Austen Chamberlain. From 1890, he spent seven years unsuccessfully running his father's sisal plantation in the Bahamas. He returned to Birmingham, and was involved in business, before becoming Lord Mayor of the city in 1915. Lloyd George asked him to become Director-General of National Service in 1916, but he resigned a year later after disagreements with Lloyd George. He was elected as Conservative MP for Birmingham Ladywood in 1918 (moving to Edgbaston in 1929), became Paymaster-General under Bonar Law in 1922, and served briefly as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1923.

A successful and efficient Minister of Health (1924–9), he reformed the Poor Law, promoted council-house building, and developed local government. Despite these reforms, his openly dismissive attitude towards the Labour Party meant that he gained few friends on the opposition benches of the House of Commons. In 1931 he was a key figure in the negotiations resulting in the formation of the National Government, and then, as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1931–7), he steered the British economy back towards prosperity, and finally introduced measures of protection unsuccessfully championed by his father for so long.

In May 1937 he succeeded Baldwin as Prime Minister. His hope for a large programme of social reform was ended, however, by the prominence of international affairs and the necessity for rearmament, which had already begun. His policy of ‘appeasement’, popular at the time but later denigrated as an act of cowardice, was to accommodate the European dictators in order to avoid war, which he regarded as potentially disastrous for all, especially the British Empire. At three meetings with Hitler, at Berchtesgaden, at Godesberg, and at Munich in September 1938, he conceded Czechoslovak territory to Germany. In spite of this he did not save Czechoslovakia from German invasion in March 1939. Like many of his colleagues, he was reluctant to negotiate seriously with the Soviet Union, but did pledge military support to Poland in March 1939. When Germany invaded Poland later in the year, Chamberlain had little choice but to declare war. In May 1940, following a disaster for British forces in Norway, his own party rebelled against him and he was forced to resign in favour of Winston Churchill, whom he wholeheartedly supported until his death later in the year.

For many years, Chamberlain was vilified as being responsible for many of the policies which led to World War II. More recently, some historians have explained his policy as an understandable reaction to Britain's weakness, and to a realistic appreciation of the cost involved in another world war. Even so, it is clear that right up to August 1939 he hoped and believed in the possibility of coming to a peaceful arrangement with Hitler, at a time when the aggressive nature of Germany had been evident at least since the Anschluss.

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.

Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (1869–1940) prime minister of England, (1937–40) born in Birmingham. At the beginning of World War II, he tried to maintain peaceful relations with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini through a policy of appeasement, engineering the Munich Pact in 1938, which gave Hitler the Sudeten (an area of Czechoslovakia, one fifth of the country and rich in natural resources) in addition to other areas that went to Hungary and Poland. When he returned to England in triumph, he proclaimed, “I believe it is peace in our time,” but his optimism had no basis and the failure of appeasement became obvious when Hitler invaded and conquered Czechoslovakia in 1939. After Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain guaranteed Poland against a similar fate, but, when Germany invaded Poland only months later, he declared war. His own party turned against him, and he was forced to resign when British forces were defeated in Norway.

Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (1869–1940) British prime minister (1937–40). Son of Joseph Chamberlain, he was a successful businessman before entering Parliament in 1918. During the 1920s, he served as chancellor of the exchequer (1923–24, 1931–37) and minister of health (1924–29). He succeeded Stanley Baldwin as Conservative prime minister. He confronted the threat to European peace posed by Adolf Hitler with a policy of appeasement and signed the Munich Agreement (1938). After Hitler's invasion of Poland, Chamberlain declared war in September 1939. After the loss of Norway, he was replaced by Winston Churchill in May 1940.

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Adolf Arthur Dehn , 1895–1968, American painter and illustrator, b. Waterville, Minn. During the 1920s, Dehn became known as a forceful satiric illustrator. Later he concentrated primarily on painting, especially watercolor. Among his major works are Jimmy Savo and Rope (Whitney Mus., New York City) and Butte, Utah (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City). Dehn is the author of Water Color Painting (1945) and Water Color, Gouache, and Casein Painting (1955).