Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 28 May 1937 to 10 May 1940, succeeding Stanley Baldwin and preceding Winston Churchill.
Biography[]
Neville Chamberlain was born in Birmingham, England on 18 March 1869, the son of Joseph Chamberlain and the half-brother of Austen Chamberlain. From 1890, he spent seven years unsuccessfully running his father's sisal plantation in the Bahamas, and he became involved with businesses in Birmignham before becoming Lord Mayor in 1915. David 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 the Conservative Party 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. He was a successful and efficient Minister of Health from 1924 to 1929, and he reformed the Poor Law, promoted council-house building, and developed local government. Despite these reforms, his openly dismissive attitude toward the Labor Party meant that he gained few friends on the opposition benches of the House of Commons. In 1931, he was e key figure in the negotiations resulting in the formation of the National Government, and he steered the economy back towards prosperity as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1931 to 1937.
Prime Minister[]
Neville waving the Munich Agreement in the air, 1938
In 1937, Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister, but his home for a large programme of social reform was ended by the prominence of international affairs and the necessity for rearmament, which had already begun. His policy of appeasement was to accomodate 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, Godesberg, and Munich in September 1938, he conceded Czechoslovakian territory to Nazi Germany. However, he did not save Czechoslovakia from German invasion in March 1939. He was reluctant to negotiate seriously with the Soviet Union, but he did pledge military support to Poland in March 1939. When Germany invaded Poland later that year, he had little choice but to decalre war. In May 1940, he was forced to resign in favor of Winston Churchill after his party, disheartened at the fall of Norway, rebelled against him. He supported Churchill wholeheartedly until his death months later.
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