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Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 - 9 November 1940)
was a British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 -
1940.
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. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1923 - 1924 and again 1931-1937, and was Minister of Health in 1923, from 1924 to 1929 and again in 1931.
Appointment
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.
Domestic policy
Chamberlain's domestic policy receives little attention from historians but was considered to be highly significant and
radical at the time.
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.
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.
Neville Chamberlain's First Cabinet, May 1937 - September 1939
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.
- March 1938: Lord Winterton, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, enters the Cabinet.
- May 1938: Malcolm MacDonald succeeds Lord Harlech as Colonial Secretary. Lord
Stanley succeeds MacDonald as Dominions Secretary. Kingsley Wood succeeds Lord Swinton as Secretary for Air. Walter Elliot
Elliot succeeds Wood as Minister of Health. David John Colville succeeds Elliot as Scottish Secretary.
- October 1938: Lord Stanhope succeeds Duff Cooper as First Lord of the Admiralty. Lord De La Warr succeeds Stanhope at the
Board of Education. Sir John
Anderson succeeds De La Warr as Lord Privy Seal. Malcolm MacDonald succeeds Stanley 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 the Coordination of Defense. W.S.
Morrison succeeds Lord Winterton at the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith succeeds Morrison as Minister of
Agriculture.
- April 1939: Edward Leslie Burgin becomes Minister Without Portfolio. He is succeeded as Minister of Transport by David Euan Wallace.
- July 1939: Edward 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 for War.
- April 1940: Sir Samuel Hoare succeeds Kingsley Wood as Secretary for Air. Wood succeeds as Hoare as Lord Privy Seal. Lord
Chatfield leaves the Government and the office of Minister for the Coordination of Defence is abolished.
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