Neville Chamberlain

   

The Right Hon. Neville Chamberlain
Image:Neville_Chamberlain1.jpg
Period in Office: 28 May 1937 - 10 May 1940
PM Predecessor: Stanley Baldwin
PM Successor: Winston Churchill
Date of Birth: 18 March 1869
Place of Birth: Birmingham
Political Party: Conservative

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 - 9 November, 1940) was a British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 - 1940.

Early life

Chamberlain was the eldest son from Birmingham Mayor Joseph Chamberlain's second marriage and also half-brother to Sir Austen Chamberlain. He became Lord Mayor of Birmingham himself in 1915 after a successful start in business.

Early Ministerial career

In 1916 Chamberlain was appointed Director of National Service by David Lloyd George. However, he found the post a frustrating one, felt that it was never properly defined, and clashed with Lloyd George several times, finally resigning in 1917. At no point during this period did he sit in Parliament, but he decided to stand in the next general election, when he was successfully elected for the first time at the age of 49 - by far the oldest age for any future Prime Minister entering Parliament to date. Chamberlain spent the next four years as a Conservative backbencher, despite his half-brother Austen becoming leader of Conservative MPs in 1921. However in 1922 the Lloyd George Coalition Government fell and Austen with it. As part of an olive branch, the new Conservative Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law offered Neville the position of Postmaster General, which he accepted. It was to be the start of a rapid series of appointments. Chamberlain was soon appointed Paymaster General. Then in April 1923, after only six months as a minister, he was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister of Health. In this position he introduced a bold housing act which aimed to encourage local authorities to expand house construction. Four months later Chamberlain was promoted again by the new Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, which he held until the government fell in January 1924.

Chamberlain remained one of the leading Conservative figures but faced a tremendous challenge in the 1924 general election. Whereas elsewhere the Conservatives were advancing, in Birmingham they faced a tremendous challenge from the Labour Party, locally headed by Oswald Mosley who stood against Chamberlain. After a tense series of recounts Chamberlain was declared elected by a mere 77 votes. In subsequent elections he stood in a safer seat.

The Conservatives formed a new government, but Chamberlain declined the offer of a return as Chancellor of the Exchequer, preferring instead to once more become Minister of Health. Over the next four and a half years he successfully introduced no less than 21 pieces of bold legislation, establishing his credentials as a strong social reformer.

The Conservatives were out of power after the 1929 general election and entered a period of internal conflict. In 1930 Chamberlain became Chairman of the Conservative Party for a year and was widely seen as the next leader. However Stanley Baldwin survived the conflict over his leadership and retained the leadership for another seven years.

In August 1931 Chamberlain headed the Conservative delegation in negotiations with the Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald as it sought to deal with a budget crisis. Throughout Chamberlain came to the conclusion that the most desirable outcome would be to form a National Government, which eventually occurred on August 24 1931. Chamberlain once more returned to the Ministry of Health with the specific task of encouraging local authorities to make cuts to their expenditure.

After the 1931 general election Chamberlain wa appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer a second time. He emerged as the most active Minister of the government and achieved a strong personal success when he successfully introduced tariffs, something that his father had long campaigned for.

Appointment as Prime Minister

In May of 1937, Stanley Baldwin tendered his resignation as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party and nominating Neville Chamberlain as his successor. He became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on May 28 1937 and leader of the Conservative Party a few days later. Ironically he never considered himself to be a "Conservative", preferring personally to use the term "Unionist" which had been more commonplace when he first entered politics and which recalled the Liberal Unionist Party of his father.

As a Unitarian, he became the first British Prime Minister not to accept even nominally the basic trinitarian belief of the Church of England. This did not bar him from advising the King on appointments in the established church.

Domestic policy

Chamberlain's domestic policy receives little attention from historians but was considered to be highly significant and radical at the time. Achievements included the Factory Act, the Housing Act and the Physical Training Act. Coal mining royalties were nationalised in 1938. Passenger air services were made into a public corporation in 1939.

Some proposed reforms did not take place due to the outbreak of war, such as the raising of the school leaving age to 15, which would have otherwise commenced on September 1 1939. The Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, proposed a radical reform of the criminal justice system, including the abolition of flogging, which was also put on hold.

Foreign policy

His foreign policy is often called appeasement and culminated in the Munich Agreement which effectively allowed Adolf Hitler to annex large areas of Czechoslovakia, and delayed the onset of World War II by a year. When Hitler invaded and seized the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Chamberlain felt betrayed by the breaking of the Munich Agreement and decided to take a much harder line against the Nazis.

One popular view is that Chamberlain believed passionately in peace, and wanted to avoid war at virtually any cost, which seems to have contributed to his willingness to believe that satisfying each of Hitler's escalating demands for control of more and more territory would finally be the last, and that peace would be ensured. Eventually, although too late to prevent the war that arguably could have been ended by British military intervention when the Third Reich had not yet established its military strength, Chamberlain was able to see through Hitler's tactics and supported the declaration of war against Germany after the invasion of Poland.

Chamberlain holds the Munich Agreement on his return from Germany in September 1938.
Chamberlain holds the Munich Agreement on his return from Germany in September 1938.

However, this view has been criticised as being inconsistent with the historical facts. Under Chamberlain, the United Kingdom undertook a massive expansion of its military and war industry and instituted a peacetime draft. According to some historians, Chamberlain was under no illusions about the aims and goals of Nazi Germany, but was informed by his military advisers that Britain was in no condition to fight Germany over Czechslovakia. Seen from this vantage point, Chamberlain's actions in Munich were less a cowardly and ignorant cave-in, but rather a calculated and necessary tactic to buy time so that Britain could rearm against the Nazi menace. The rearmament program accelerated after Hitler's seizure of Czechoslovakia, and by the time Hitler's armies attacked Poland, Britain was well on its way to building its own war machine to confront Nazi Germany's.

Following the debacle of the British expedition to Norway in April of 1940, Chamberlain found himself under siege in the House of Commons. On May 7 Leo Amery delivered a devastating indictment in the Norway Debate of Chamberlain's conduct of the war. In concluding his speech he quoted the words of Oliver Cromwell to the Long Parliament; "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go".

Resignation

On May 10, the day of the invasion of The Netherlands, Belgium and France, finding it impossible to retain the support of the House of Commons, he resigned as Prime Minister to allow Winston Churchill to form a new national government. He retained his leadership of the Conservative Party and announced in his resignation broadcast that he would remain in government as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House. The Labour and Liberal leaders (and many Tories) were reluctant to serve in a government in which Chamberlain retained such power, and Churchill appointed him as Lord President of the Council instead. A broken man, his health soon deteriorated and in July he was operated on for stomach cancer. On October 3, the cancer forced his resignation as Tory leader and Lord President. He died on November 9 aged 71.

Ministerial Appointments

During the three years of his premiership, Chamberlain's ministerial appointments were notable for his willingness to appoint regardless of any notion of balancing the parties supporting the National Government, whilst also appointing a number of ministers with no party political experience but instead with experience from the outside world. Such appointments included the Law Lord Lord Maugham as Lord Chancellor, the former First Sea Lord Lord Chatfield as Minister for Coordination of Defence, the businessman Andrew Duncan as President of the Board of Trade, the former Director-General of the BBC Sir John Reith as Minister of Information and the department store owner Lord Woolton as Minister of Food. Even when appointing exisitng MPs Chamberlain demonstrated a willingness to ignore conventional choices based on service and appoint MPs who had not been in the House of Commons very long, such as appointing the former civil servant and Governor of Bengal Sir John Anderson as the Minister in charge of Air Raid Precautions or the former President of the National Farmers Union Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith as Minister of Agriculture.

Neville Chamberlain's First Cabinet, May 1937 - September 1939

Key office holders not in the Cabinet:

Changes

  • February 1938: Lord Halifax succeeds Eden as Foreign Secretary. Halifax is succeeded as Lord President by Lord Hailsham, who is succeeded as Lord Chancellor by Lord Maugham. Halifax is succeeded as Leader of the House of Lords by Lord Stanhope, who remains President of the Board of Education as well.
  • March 1938: Lord Winterton, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, enters the Cabinet.
  • May 1938: Orsmby-Gore inherits the title Baron Harlech. He subsequently steps down from the government and is succeed by Malcolm MacDonald as Colonial Secretary. Lord Stanley succeeds MacDonald as Dominions Secretary. Kingsley Wood succeeds Lord Swinton as Secretary of State for Air. Walter Elliot succeeds Wood as Minister of Health. John Colville succeeds Elliot as Scottish Secretary.
  • October 1938: Lord Stanhope succeeds Duff Cooper as First Lord of the Admiralty, remaining also Leader of the House of Lords. Lord De La Warr succeeds Stanhope at the Board of Education. Sir John Anderson succeeds De La Warr as Lord Privy Seal, with special responsibility for Air Raid Precautions. Malcolm MacDonald succeeds Stanley (deceased) as Dominions Secretary, remaining also Colonial Secretary. Lord Runciman succeeds Lord Hailsham as Lord President.
  • January 1939: Sir Thomas Inskip succeeds Malcolm MacDonald as Dominions Secretary. Maconald remains Colonial Secretary. Lord Chatfield succeeds Inskip as Minister for Coordination of Defence. W.S. Morrison succeeds Lord Winterton at the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith succeeds Morrison as Minister of Agriculture.
  • April 1939: Leslie Burgin becomes Minister without Portfolio pending the legislation to create the Ministry of Supply. He is succeeded as Minister of Transport by Euan Wallace.
  • July 1939: Leslie Burgin becomes Minister of Supply.

Neville Chamberlain's Second Cabinet, September 1939 - May 1940

Upon the outbreak of the war, Chamberlain carried out a fullscale reconstruction of the government and introduced a small War Cabinet who were as follows:

Changes

  • January 1940: Oliver Stanley succeeds Leslie Hore-Belisha as Secretary of State for War.
  • April 1940: Sir Samuel Hoare succeeds Kingsley Wood as Secretary of State for Air. Wood succeeds as Hoare as Lord Privy Seal. Lord Chatfield leaves the Government and the office of Minister for Coordination of Defence is abolished.

Key office holders not in the Cabinet

Changes


Preceded by:
Frederick Kellaway 		Postmaster General
1922-1923 		Followed by:
Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Preceded by:
Office vacant 		Paymaster-General
1923
Preceded by:
Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen 		Minister of Health
1923
Preceded by:
Stanley Baldwin 		Chancellor of the Exchequer
1923–1924 		Followed by:
Philip Snowden
Preceded by:
John Wheatley 		Minister of Health
1924-1929 		Followed by:
Arthur Greenwood
Preceded by:
Arthur Greenwood 		Minister of Health
1931 		Followed by:
Edward Hilton Young

<tr>

Preceded by:
Philip Snowden 		Chancellor of the Exchequer
1931–1937 		Followed by:
Sir John Allsebrook Simon
Preceded by:
Stanley Baldwin 		Leader of the British Conservative Party
1937–1940 		Followed by:
Winston Churchill
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1937–1940
Preceded by:
The Earl Stanhope 		Lord President of the Council
1940 		Followed by:
Sir John Anderson


de:Neville Chamberlain fr:Neville Chamberlain he:ארתור נוויל צ'מברליין ja:ネヴィル・チェンバレン pl:Neville Chamberlain uk:Чемберлен Артур Невіл





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