Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a Liberal Party politician who was well-known for splitting both the Liberal Party and the UK Conservative Party due to his anti-Home Rule and anti-free trade views, respectively. He was the father of Neville Chamberlain and Austen Chamberlain.
Biography[]
Joseph Chamberlain was born in London, England on 8 July 1836, and he left school at the age of 16, going to work in Birmingham in 1854. He quickly established a considerable income through manufacturing screws, and this enabled him to become active in politics. He achieved national prominence as an outspoken critic of the 1870 Education Act, though his reputation as a radical UK Liberal Party member derived from his time as Mayor of Birmingham from 1873 to 1876, when his innovative application of the municipal gospel led to the municipalization of water and gas, as well as the destruction of slums through large-scale clearances. His success in Birmingham was also based on the development of an effective political organization, which he sought to translate to the national level through the establishment of the National Liberal Association in 1877. Despite his lack of experience, he became President of the Board of Trade (1880-1885). He left the Liberal Party in opposition to Home Rule for Ireland and joined the Liberal Unionist Party, which subsequently worked with the Conservative Party. In coalition with the latter, he served as Colonial Secretary from 1895 to 1903, but he resigned in order to campaign openly for the abandoment of free trade through tariff reform. The main effect of his campaign was to split the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists and render them uncapable of government for two decades, just as he had done with the Liberals in 1886. He died in 1914.