Neville Chamberlain

The Right Honourable Neville Chamberlain FRS
Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1921
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 28 May 1937 – 10 May 1940
Monarch	George VI
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office 27 May 1937 – 9 October 1940
Chairman	Sir Douglas Hacking
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Ministerial offices Lord President of the Council In office 10 May 1940 – 3 October 1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill Preceded by The Earl Stanhope Succeeded by Sir John Anderson Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 5 November 1931 – 28 May 1937 Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Stanley Baldwin Preceded by Philip Snowden Succeeded by Sir John Simon In office 27 August 1923 – 22 January 1924 Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin Preceded by Stanley Baldwin Succeeded by Philip Snowden Minister of Health In office 25 August 1931 – 5 November 1931 Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Preceded by Arthur Greenwood Succeeded by Hilton Young In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929 Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin Preceded by John Wheatley Succeeded by Arthur Greenwood In office 7 March 1923 – 27 August 1923 Prime Minister Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin Preceded by Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen Succeeded by Sir William Joynson-Hicks Paymaster General In office 5 February 1923 – 15 March 1923 Prime Minister Bonar Law Preceded by Sir Tudor Walters Succeeded by Sir William Joynson-Hicks Postmaster General In office 31 October 1922 – 12 March 1923 Prime Minister Bonar Law Preceded by Frederick Kellaway Succeeded by Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston In office 30 May 1929 – 9 November 1940 Preceded by Sir Francis Lowe Succeeded by Sir Peter Bennett Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood In office 14 December 1918 – 10 May 1929 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Wilfrid Whiteley
Personal details
Born	Arthur Neville Chamberlain (1869-03-18)18 March 1869 Birmingham, England
Died	9 November 1940(1940-11-09) (aged 71) Heckfield, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Political party	Conservative
Other political affiliations	Liberal Unionist Party
Spouse	Anne de Vere Cole ​ (m. 1911)​
Children	2
Parent	Joseph Chamberlain (father)
Education	Rugby School
Alma mater	Mason College
Occupation	Businessman politician
Signature
Neville Chamberlain's voice Chamberlain declaring war on Germany Recorded 3 September 1939

Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS (/ˈtʃeɪmbərlɪn/; 18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.

After working in business and local government, and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father Joseph Chamberlain and elder half-brother Austen Chamberlain in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election for the new Birmingham Ladywood division at the age of 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short-lived Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931.

Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister on 28 May 1937. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards an increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among the British at the time. In response to Hitler's continued aggression, Chamberlain pledged the United Kingdom to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought his country into war after the German invasion of Poland. The failure of Allied forces to prevent the German invasion of Norway caused the House of Commons to hold the historic Norway Debate in May 1940. Chamberlain's conduct of the war was heavily criticised by members of all parties and, in a vote of confidence, his government's majority was greatly reduced. Accepting that a national government supported by all the main parties was essential, Chamberlain resigned the premiership because the Labour and Liberal parties would not serve under his leadership. Although he still led the Conservative Party, he was succeeded as prime minister by his colleague Winston Churchill. Until ill health forced him to resign on 22 September 1940, Chamberlain was an important member of the war cabinet as Lord President of the Council, heading the government in Churchill's absence. His support for Churchill proved vital during the May 1940 war cabinet crisis. Chamberlain died aged 71 on 9 November of cancer, six months after leaving the premiership.

Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians, the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, led by Churchill in The Gathering Storm. Some later historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the thirty-year rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared. Nonetheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British prime ministers.^[1]