Neville Chamberlain was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 until 1940. Neville was born into a political family, thus he was destined for a career in politics. Chamberlain, unlike his father and half-brother, entered politics later in life. He entered politics as a Member of Parliament at the age of 49, making him the oldest Member of Parliament in history. Surprisingly, he still has the title. Chamberlain’s early career is notable in that he decided to remain a backbencher until 1922, rejecting offers of subordinate government positions. However, destiny smiled on him in 1923, when he was appointed to the position of Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1937. His tenure is mainly recognized for his appeasement foreign policy, which included signing the Munich Agreement in 1938 and ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland portion of Czechoslovakia to Germany. Winston Churchill, Chamberlain’s most ardent opponent and first Lord of the Admiralty in his war cabinet, followed him.
Childhood and Adolescence
Joseph Chamberlain and Florence Kenrick gave birth to Neville Chamberlain on March 18, 1869. From his father’s first marriage, he had a half-brother named Austen Chamberlain.
Rugby School was where Chamberlain got a lot of his early education. He moved to Mason College after finishing his preparatory studies (University of Birmingham). However, his lack of interest in academics led him to work as an accountant’s apprentice.
Career of Neville Chamberlain
With the purchase of Hoskins & Company, a manufacturer of metal ship berths, Chamberlain launched his career in mainstream industry. For 17 years, he served as the company’s managing director.
He was named Governor of Birmingham’s General Hospital in 1906 and became a founding member of the British Medical Association’s National United Hospitals Committee shortly after.
Chamberlain began his political career as an enthusiastic supporter of his father’s Liberal Unionists. The chairmanship of the Town Planning Committee was his first public position. Britain approved its first town planning projects during his presidency, albeit due to World War I, the idea remained mostly on paper.
During the difficult period of World War I, he became Lord Mayor of Birmingham in 1915. In the same year, he was named to the Central Control Board for Liquor Traffic.
He was the Director of National Service in 1916. He resigned from the post the next year due to a lack of power and support.
He opted to run for the House of Commons as a Unionist candidate after gaining adequate experience in public office. He was elected as a Unionist member with 70% of the vote when World War I ended.
He was the chairman of the National Unhealthy Areas Committee from 1919 to 1921, and he visited England’s slums. During the 1922 election, Unionists broke away from the Liberal-led coalition and fought on their own, led by Bonar Law.
Unionists encountered criticism from high-ranking members inside the party under Bonar Law’s leadership. Chamberlain was able to move up the corporate ladder as a result of this. He was appointed to Chancellor of the Exchequer in 10 months, but the Conservative Party lost to the Labour Party in the 1923 general elections, and Charmberlain lost his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In reality, he was only able to keep his parliamentary seat by a hair. However, the Labour administration collapsed within a few months, prompting a new election.
Chamberlain moved his parliamentary seat from Ladywood to Birmingham Edgbaston, which was more safer. Following the Unionists’ triumph, he was appointed Minister of Health.
He presented the Cabinet with 25 legislation in 1929, 21 of which were enacted and became law. He stepped down as Minister of Health for a short while, but returned once the Labour administration fell.
In the 1931 general election, MacDonald’s National Government party, which consisted primarily of Conservatives, won by a landslide. Chamberlain was offered the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer once more.
His measures during his second stint as Chancellor enhanced his reputation as an effective administrator. In April 1932, he proposed his first budget. He not only lowered the interest rate on Britain’s war debt, but also proclaimed a budget surplus by 1934, allowing cuts in unemployment compensation and civil servant salaries to be restored.
He succeeded Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister in 1937, making him the second-oldest person in the twentieth century to hold the position for the first time.
He passed the Factories Act of 1937 shortly after becoming office, emphasizing better working conditions and shorter working hours for women and children. On the home front, he supported nationalization of coal deposits, slum clearance, rent regulation, and a week of paid vacation for workers.
During his reign, troubled relations with Ireland, which had been a source of anxiety for his predecessors, were finally rectified to his satisfaction. Despite being strong negotiators, the Irish eventually agreed to pay the money owed to Britain. With the exception of wartime, Britain had to yield on access to the three Treaty Ports. The division problem, on the other hand, remained unresolved.
Chamberlain, who had lived through World Conflict I, was determined to avoid a second war at any costs. He attempted to urge Italy to shift away from German control, and he even acknowledged Italian primacy in Ethiopia for the same reason. He also kept the United Kingdom out of the Spanish Civil War. Foreign Secretary Eden, on the other hand, slammed these moves.
Chamberlain believed that soothing and pacifying Adolf Hitler was the best way to avoid the war and its consequences. As a result of this, the Munich Agreement was signed, in which Britain and France agreed to hand up the Sudetenland part of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
Following Hitler’s conquest of Bohemia and Moravia in the Czech Republic, as well as Prague, Slovakia, and Poland, Chamberlain intensified Britain’s rearmament program and rejected any further appeasement. On September 3, 1939, in response to the attack on Poland, Chamberlain issued a British declaration of war on Germany.
He formed a war cabinet, which included representatives of the Labour and Liberal parties. Winston Churchill, his most vehement critic, was named First Lord of the Admiralty. However, the British declaration of war was a ruse, as the conflict was dominated by occasional military activity.
Chamberlain lost the backing of many Conservatives in the House of Commons after the failure of a British expedition to Norway in April 1940 and his poor ties with the Labour Party. As a result, on May 10, 1940, the day of the German invasion of the Low Countries, he resigned.
Winston Churchill became the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after his resignation. Chamberlain was the Lord President of the Council under Churchill’s coalition administration. He was also the Conservative Party’s leader at the time. On September 30, 1940, Chamberlain resigned from both roles.
Major Projects of Neville Chamberlain
Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement stance toward Adolf Hitler in the years leading up to World War II. He signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, handing up the German-speaking Sudetenland part of Czechoslovakia to Germany, as a result of this policy. He was blamed for Hitler’s escalating violence, which needed to be stopped right away. He was also blamed for failing to prepare Britain for the impending World War II.
Achievements & Awards
Neville Chamberlain was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1938.
Oxford University awarded him the title of Doctor of Civil Law during his lifetime. Cambridge, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, and Reading University all gave him an LLB.
Honorary Freedom City of Birmingham and Honorary Freedom City of London were bestowed upon him. In 1941, his wife received the latter.
Personal History and Legacy
In 1911, Neville Chamberlain married Anne Cole. A son and a daughter were born to the couple.
During the later half of 1940, he was afflicted with illness. With the passage of time, his health deteriorated. On November 9, 1940, he succumbed to intestinal cancer and died. His ashes were placed next to Andrew Bonar Law at Westminster Abbey after his funeral service.
Neville Chamberlain Net Worth
Neville Chamberlain is one of the wealthiest world leaders and one of the most beloved. Neville Chamberlain’s net worth is estimated to be $1.5 million, according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.
Trivia
He is still the oldest House of Commons debutant to later become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, at the age of 49.