Chamberlain, Neville (Arthur Neville Chamberlain), 1869–1940, British statesman; son of Joseph Chamberlain Chamberlain, Joseph, 1836–1914, British statesman. After a successful business career, he entered local politics and won distinction as a reforming mayor of Birmingham (1873–76).
..... Click the link for more information. and half brother of Sir Austen Chamberlain Chamberlain, Sir Austen (Joseph Austen Chamberlain) (chām`bərlĭn)
..... Click the link for more information. . The first half of his career was spent in business and, after 1911, in the city government of Birmingham, of which he became lord mayor in 1915. In 1917 he was director of national service, supervising conscription, and the following year, at the age of 50, he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative. During the 1920s he served both as chancellor of the exchequer (1923–24) and minister of health (1923, 1924–29). In the latter position, he enacted a series of important reforms that simplified the administration of Britain's social services and systematized local government. In 1931 he again became chancellor of the exchequer and held that office until he succeeded Stanley Baldwin Baldwin, Stanley, 1867–1947, British statesman; cousin of Rudyard Kipling. The son of a Worcestershire ironmaster, he was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered the family business.
..... Click the link for more information. as prime minister in 1937.

During the 1930s, Chamberlain's professed commitment to avoiding war with Hitler resulted in his controversial policy of "appeasement," which culminated in the Munich Pact Munich Pact, 1938. In the summer of 1938, Chancellor Hitler of Germany began openly to support the demands of Germans living in the Sudetenland (see Sudetes ) of Czechoslovakia for an improved status.
..... Click the link for more information. (1938). Although contemporaries and scholars during and after the war criticized Chamberlain for believing that Hitler could be appeased, recent research argues that Chamberlain was not so naive and that appeasement was a shrewd policy developed to buy time for an ill-prepared Britain to rearm. After Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he pledged military support to Poland and led Britain to war in September. After the British debacle in Norway, he was forced to resign in May, 1940. He was lord president of the council under Winston Churchill Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer, 1874–1965, British statesman, soldier, and author; son of Lord Randolph Churchill .

Early Career

Educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, he became (1894) an officer in the 4th hussars.
..... Click the link for more information. until Oct., 1940, and died a few weeks later.

Bibliography

See biographies by W. R. Rock (1969) and D. Dilks (vol. 1, 1984); R. Cockett, Twilight of Truth (1989); J. Charmley, Chamberlain and the Lost Peace (1990).

Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville

(born March 18, 1869, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng.—died Nov. 9, 1940, Heckfield, near Reading, Hampshire) British prime minister (1937–40). Son of Joseph Chamberlain and half brother of Austen Chamberlain, he prospered in the metalworking industry in Birmingham; as the city's lord mayor (1915–16) he organized England's first municipal bank. He was a member of the House of Commons (1918–40), during which he served in Conservative governments as minister of health and chancellor of the Exchequer. As prime minister (1937–40), he sought to prevent the outbreak of a general European war over Adolf Hitler's demand that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland to Germany. In 1938 he and France's Édouard Daladier granted most of Hitler's demands in the Munich agreement, after which he returned to England a popular hero, speaking of “peace in our time.” He repudiated appeasement after Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia, and when Germany attacked Poland, he declared war. He lost the support of many Conservatives after the failure of a British expedition to Norway and resigned in 1940.