Neville Chamberlain


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 of the Birmingham Mayor Joseph Chamberlain
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 was Minister of Health
in 1923 and from 1924 to 1929.

Appointment

In May of 1937, Stanley Baldwin
tendered his resignation as      Term of Office:  28 May 1937 - 10 May 1940
Prime Minister and leader of the PM Predecessor:  Stanley Baldwin
Conservative Party and
nominating Neville Chamberlain   PM Successor:    Winston Churchill
as his successor. He became      Date of Birth:   18 March 1869
Prime Minister of the United     Place of Birth:  Birmingham, England
Kingdom on May 28, 1937.
                                 Political Party: Conservative
Appeasement

His policy of appeasement culminated in the Munich Agreement which
effectively allowed Adolf Hitler to annex Czechoslovakia, and delayed the
onset of World War II by a year.

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 hadn't yet built 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 criticized 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 that
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.

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 Secretary of State for India and Burma delivered a devastating
indictment 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, coincidentally the same day as 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.