Neville Chamberlain

The Right Honourable
Neville Chamberlain
FRS
The Right Honourable Neville Chamberlain FRS
	Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1921
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
	In office; 28 May 1937 – 10 May 1940
Monarch	George VI
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Leader of the Conservative Party
	In office; 27 May 1937 – 9 October 1940
Chairman	Sir Douglas Hacking
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Prime Minister
Ministerial offices
Lord President of the Council
	In office; 10 May 1940 – 3 October 1940
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	The Earl Stanhope
Succeeded by	Sir John Anderson
Chancellor of the Exchequer
	In office; 5 November 1931 – 28 May 1937
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald; Stanley Baldwin;
Preceded by	Philip Snowden
Succeeded by	Sir John Simon
	In office; 27 August 1923 – 22 January 1924
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	Philip Snowden
Minister of Health
	In office; 25 August 1931 – 5 November 1931
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Arthur Greenwood
Succeeded by	Hilton Young
	In office; 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	John Wheatley
Succeeded by	Arthur Greenwood
	In office; 7 March 1923 – 27 August 1923
Prime Minister	Bonar Law; Stanley Baldwin;
Preceded by	Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen
Succeeded by	Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Paymaster General
	In office; 5 February 1923 – 15 March 1923
Prime Minister	Bonar Law
Preceded by	Sir Tudor Walters
Succeeded by	Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Postmaster General
	In office; 31 October 1922 – 12 March 1923
Prime Minister	Bonar Law
Preceded by	Frederick Kellaway
Succeeded by	Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Preceded by
Parliamentary offices
Member of Parliament; for Birmingham Edgbaston
	In office; 30 May 1929 – 9 November 1940
Preceded by	Sir Francis Lowe
Succeeded by	Sir Peter Bennett
Member of Parliament; for Birmingham Ladywood
	In office; 14 December 1918 – 10 May 1929
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Wilfrid Whiteley
Personal details
Born	Arthur Neville Chamberlain; 18 March 1869; Birmingham, England
Died	9 November 1940 (aged 71); Heckfield, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Political party	Conservative
Other political; affiliations	Liberal Unionist Party
Spouse	Anne de Vere Cole (m. 1911)
Children	2
Parent	Joseph Chamberlain (father);
Education	Rugby School
Alma mater	Mason College
Occupation	Businessman; politician;
Signature
	Neville Chamberlain's voice Chamberlain declaring war on Germany; Recorded 3 September 1939

Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS (/ˈtʃeɪmbərlɪn/; 18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.

After working in business and local government, and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father Joseph Chamberlain and elder half-brother Austen Chamberlain in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election for the new Birmingham Ladywood division at the age of 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short-lived Labour-led government, 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 National Government in 1931.

Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister on 28 May 1937. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards an increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among the British at the time. In response to Hitler's continued aggression, Chamberlain pledged the United Kingdom to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought his country into war after the German invasion of Poland. The failure of Allied forces to prevent the German invasion of Norway caused the House of Commons to hold the historic Norway Debate in May 1940. Chamberlain's conduct of the war was heavily criticised by members of all parties and, in a vote of confidence, his government's majority was greatly reduced. Accepting that a national government supported by all the main parties was essential, Chamberlain resigned the premiership because the Labour and Liberal parties would not serve under his leadership. Although he still led the Conservative Party, he was succeeded as prime minister by his colleague Winston Churchill. Until ill health forced him to resign on 22 September 1940, Chamberlain was an important member of the war cabinet as Lord President of the Council, heading the government in Churchill's absence. His support for Churchill proved vital during the May 1940 war cabinet crisis. Chamberlain died aged 71 on 9 November of cancer, six months after leaving the premiership.

Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians, the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, led by Churchill in The Gathering Storm. Some later historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the thirty-year rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared. Nonetheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British prime ministers.^[1]

^ Strangio, Paul; et al. (2013). Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 224, 226. ISBN 978-0-19-966642-3. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

[1] Strangio, Paul; et al. (2013). Understanding Prime-Ministerial Performance: Comparative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 224, 226. ISBN 978-0-19-966642-3. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

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