Born on 18th March 1869, Arthur Neville Chamberlain was the youngest son of Joseph Chamberlain, and half brother to
Sir Austen Chamberlain. After being educated at
Rugby School, he went onto Mason College, Birmingham to study
metallurgy and
engineering design. Engineering didn't hold much appeal for Chamberlain, and at the age of 21, he went to the
Bahamas to manage his fathers
banana plantation.
Chamberlain returned to Britain in 1897 to work in the copper industry, and about this time started to become active in local politics. In 1911he married Miss Anne Vere Cole, and he started rise through the world of politics, when he was elected to his local council.
In 1915, he was elected Mayor of Birmingham, and three years later was elected to the House of Commons as the Conservative member for Ladywood. He quickly climbed the party ranks and became the Postmaster-General in 1923 and Minister for Health a year later. Chamberlain held this post which for 5 years and during his tenure was responsible for series of important reforms that simplified the administration of Britain's social service, before accepting Ramsay Macdonalds offer of the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1931.
Chamberlain became Prime Minister when Stanley Baldwin resigned in 1937, and soon became known for its policy of appeasement. He let it be widely known that he thought that Germany had been badly treated after the World War I, and that by agreeing to some of Germany's demands, he could atone for this, and hoped to avoid a repeat of the slaughter so recently visited on Europe. This policy was vocally opposed by Chamberlains Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, who resigned in protest in February 1938, to be replaced by Lord Halifax.
Soon afterward Hitler unified Germany and Austria, an act expressly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles, and Chamberlain came under fire from Eden and Churchill to take action. The result was a four way meeting between Britain, France, Germany and Italy in September 1938. Here an agreement knwn as The Munich Pact was reached, saying that Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another again. This outcome was hugely popular with the British public, and Chamberlain returned to the country a hero and was acclaimed as the man who had saved the world from war, when he stepped off the plane waving that famous piece of paper he said 'I believe it is peace in our time.'
Unfortunately this adulation didn't last long. By the following September, Hitler had broken his part of the agreement by occupying Prague. The final straw came when Germany attacked Poland, forcing Chamberlain to declare war on Germany on 3rd September 1939.
Chamberlain, his health deteriorating, came under attack from all sides. With the failure of the British expedition to Norway in 1940, the floodgates of abuse opened. A motion of censure was moved against him and the Government lost their huge majority, Chamberlain decided to form a National Government but found the Labour leaders would not serve under him. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill on 10th May 1940.
King George VI offered him the Garter and a peerage, in recognition of his services to the country, both of which he declined preferring he said, to die plain "Mr Chamberlain". He died on 9th November 1940.