Neville Chamberlain

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**The Right Hon. Neville Chamberlain**

Period in Office:	28 May 1937 - 10 May 1940
PM Predecessor:	Stanley Baldwin
PM Successor:	Winston Churchill
Date of Birth:	18 March 1869
Place of Birth:	Birmingham
Date of Death:	9 November 1940
Place of Death:	Heckfield Place, Hampshire
Political Party:	Conservative

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 - 9 November, 1940) was a British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 - 1940. Chamberlain is perhaps one of the most controversial prime ministers of the 20th century, largely due to his policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany.

Early life

Chamberlain was the eldest son from Birmingham Mayor Joseph Chamberlain's second marriage and also half-brother to Sir Austen Chamberlain. His mother died in childbirth in 1875 when he was only six years old, and the young Chamberlain and his siblings found that as a result they had strained relations with their father, who had lost his first wife the same way. Chamberlain grew up developing his strongest bonds with those siblings who were closest in age to him, most notably his sisters Ida and Hilda to whom he would write every week he was away from them.

Chamberlain was educated at Rugby School but found the experience unsettling and he became rather shy and withdrawn. At first he declined to join the school debating soceiety and only changed his mind in 1886 when he spoke in favour of his father's position in the controversy over Irish Home Rule. However it was during this period that Chamberlain developed a love of botany, and he was later to become a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. He was also fascinated by birds and became a keen ornithologist. Another of his passions, angling, developed later. Chamberlain also had passions for music and reading, and in later life he would at crucial times quote William Shakespeare. Apart from his schooling and the death of his mother, Chamberlain had a quite happy childhood.

After leaving school, Chamberlain became a day attender Mason College, Birmingham, which would later become the University of Birmingham. He thus became one of only two future Prime Ministers to attend a university other than Oxford or Cambridge (the other was Lord John Russell, who attended Edinburgh), taking a degree in science and metallurgy. Chamberlain was relatively disinteresed in these subjects, but on completing his studies he took an apprenticeship with a firm of accountants who soon offered him a permanent position.

In 1890 Joseph Chamberlain's finances took a downturn and he decided, against better advice from his brothers, to try growing sisal in the Bahamas. Neville and Austen were sent to the Americas to investigate and the island of Andros which seemed a good prospect for a plantation. He spent the next few years overseeing the plantation, but the crops failed and by 1896 the business was shut down at a heavy loss. The experience of failure was to have a profound effect upon Chamberlain. However it seems unlikely there was anything that he could have done as Andros was not suitable territory for such a crop.

Returning home, Chamberlain's later ventures were more successful. Hhe served as chairman of several manufacturing firms in Birmingham, including 'Elliots' a metal goods manufacturer, and 'Hoskins' a cabin berth manufacturer. He gained a reputation for being a hands on manager, taking a stroing interest in the day to day running of affairs, bringing a determination that enhanced the business, though he also knew when to delegate matters.

Lord Mayor of Birmingham

Although he would campaign for his father and brother during elections, Chamberlain first entered politics for himself in 1911 when he was elected as a councillor to Birmingham City Council and immediately became Chair of the Town Planning Committee. The same year he married Anne Vere. Under Chamberlain's direction Birmingham soon adopted and brought into law one of the first town planning schemes in Britain. In 1913 Chamberlain took charge of a committee looking at housing conditions. The interim report of the committee could not be implemented immediately due to the outbreak of war but it did much to show Chamberlain's vision of improvements to housing conditions.

In 1915, like his father before him, he became Lord Mayor of Birmingham, and set about ensuring that the city was organised for war. Within the first two months he had won government approval to increase the electricity supply and organised the use of coal, whilst also preventing a strike by the council workers.

Chamberlain also wished to enhance the civic pride of Birmingham and encourage interest in music and so to this end sought the creation of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He believed that a large orchestra would require a large hall and that through cheap seats it would bring music to the masses. Chamberlain's tenure as Mayor also witnessed the establishment of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, the only one of its type in the country which aimed to encourage savings so as to pay for the war loan. The Bank proved highly successful and lasted until 1976.

Chamberlain was re-elected Lord Mayor in 1916 but did not complete his term as broader horizons soon beckoned. His tenure had witnessed significant advances for Birmingham and many wondered what he could have achieved under the better circumstances of peacetime.

Early Ministerial career

One day in December 1916 Chamberlain was in London when he received a message asking him to go an mewet the new Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. In a brief meeting Lloyd George offered Chamberlain the new position of Director of National Service with responsibility for co-ordinating conscription and ensuring that essential war industries were able to function with sufficient workforces, asking for a firm decision there and then. Chamberlain had a strong sense of public service and had been recommended for the position by, amongst others, his brother Austen, and he agreed to accept the post. However despite several interviews he was left unclear about many aspects of the job, including whether or not his remit covered Scotland and Ireland. In such inauspicious circumstances began a period of higky frustrating service. Over the following eight months only a few thousand volunteers were placed in industry. Chamberlain clashed several times with Lloyd George, who had taken a strong disliking to him, thus making the position even harder to operate. It had also been decided that Chamberlain did not need a seat in Parliament to undertake the job, which he soon came to realise had been an error. Chamberlain finally resigned in 1917. He and Lloyd George retained a mutual contempt that would last throughout their political careers.

Embittered by his failure, Chamberlain decided to stand in the next general election, when he was successfully elected for the first time at the age of 49 - by far the oldest age for any future Prime Minister entering Parliament to date. He was offered a junior post at the Ministry of Health but declined it, refusing to serve again in a Lloyd George government. He also declined a knghthood. Chamberlain spent the next four years as a Conservative backbencher, despite his half-brother Austen becoming leader of Conservative MPs in 1921. It seemed doubtful whether he would make any advance.

However in October 1922 discontent amongst Conservatives against the Lloyd George Coalition Government erupted. At a meeting at the Carlton Club, the majority of MPs voted to leave the coalition, even though it meant abandoning their current leadership as Austen had pledged to support Lloyd George. Fortuitously for Neville he was abroad at the time of the meeting and so not forced to choose between supporting his brother's leadership and bringing down a man he despised.

As part of an olive branch, the new Conservative Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law offered Neville the position of Postmaster General outside the Cabinet. There was much discussion amongst the Chamberlain family as to whether or not he should accept, with arguing that to reject office under both Lloyd George and Law would make it impossible to continue in Parliament at all. Austen reluctanctly agreed to allow Neville to accept the post. It was to be the start of a rapid series of appointments.

Minister of Health

The Conservatives won the 1922 general election, although the Minister of Health, Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen lost his seat and would spend the next few months attempting to return to the House of Commons. In the meantime, Chamberlain was soon appointed Paymaster General.

In April 1923, Griffith-Boscawen lost the by-election that he had hoped would return him to the Commons and so was forced to resign. Law's preferred choice for the position was Chamberlain, who accepted and entered the Cbainet for the first time as Minister of Health. In this position he introduced a bold Housing Act which provided subsidies for private companies building affordable housing, as otherwise this would have been uneconomic. Chamberlain believed that this would be the first step towards a radical programme of slum clearances. He also introduced the Rent Restriction Act, which limited evictions and required rents to be linked to the state of repair of the propert. After only four months at the Ministry of Health Chamberlain was promoted again by the new Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, which he held until the government fell in January 1924. His first Chancellorship was unusual in that he presented no budget, though he would compensate for this later.

Chamberlain remained one of the leading Conservative figures but faced a tremendous challenge in the 1924 general election. Whereas elsewhere the Conservatives were advancing, in Birmingham they faced a tremendous challenge from the Labour Party, locally headed by Oswald Mosley who stood against Chamberlain. After a tense series of recounts Chamberlain was declared elected by a mere 77 votes. In subsequent elections he stood in a safer seat.

The Conservatives formed a new government, but Chamberlain declined the offer of a return as Chancellor of the Exchequer, preferring instead to once more become Minister of Health. Over the next four and a half years he successfully introduced no less than 21 pieces of legislation, establishing his credentials as a strong social reformer.

One of the boldest measures was the Rating and Valuation Act 1925 which radically altered local government finance. The powers to raise rates were transferred from the Poor Law boards of guardians to local councils, a single basis and a single method of assessment for evaluating rates were both introduced, and a process of quinquennial valuations was enacted. Such a measure angered some in his own party but reflected Chamberlain's vision of social reform and local government. The Poor Law was diminished by the Local Government Act 1929 which abolished the boards of guardians, once more transferring their powers to local government, whilst workhouses were abolished. The Act also including "derating", the process whereby agriculture was exempted from having to pay rates at all, whilst businesses paid reduced rates. This mesaure had been forced upon Chamberlain by Winston Churchill and the Exchequer, but the result was a strong piece of legislation that won Chamberlain many acclaims. Another prominent piece of legislation was the Widows, Orphans, and Old Age Pensions Act 1925 which did much to foster the development of the embryonic Welfare State in Britain.

Becoming the heir apparent

In the 1929 general election Chamberlain changed his constituency from Ladywood to Edgbaston, which he held easily, but the Conservative Party lost the election and entered a period of internal conflict. In 1930 Chamberlain became Chairman of the Conservative Party for a year and was widely seen as the next leader. However Stanley Baldwin survived the conflict over his leadership and retained the leadership for another seven years. Also during this period Chamberlain became the founder and first head of the Conservative Research Department.

Stanley Baldwin, Chamberlain's predecessor, with whom he had a long if turbulent political partnership

During these two years out of power Baldwin's leadership came in for much criticism, whilst many in the party and outside it urged for the adoption of a policy of introducing protective tariffs, an issue which had been argued within the party on and off for the last thirty years. Chamberlain himself was inclined towards tariffs and had a personal desire to see his father's last campaign vindicated, but found the party in turmoil. The press baron Lord Beaverbrook launched a campaign for "Empire Free Trade", meaning the removal of tariffs within the British Empire and the erection of external tariffs, and in his opposition to Baldwin he was supported by Lord Rothermere who personally opposed Baldwin and his brand of moderate Conservatism, especially over proposals for Indian Home Rule which Baldwin was prepared to support. Their main newspapers, the Daily Express and Daily Mail respectively, harried at Baldwin's leadership and did much to stir up discontent within the party. At one stage Beaverbrook and Rothermere even set up the United Empire Party which stood in by-elections on this platform and sought to induce the Conservatives to adopt it. Chamberlain found himself in the difficult position of having to support his leader, even though he agreed with the main issue of agitation and was best placed to succeed if Baldwin did resign. However Baldwin stood his ground, first winning a massive vote of confidence within his party and then taking on the challenge of the United Empire Party at the Westminster St. George's by-election in 1931 where the official Conservative candidate was victorious. Chamberlain thus found his position established as the clear heir to Baldwin, especially after Churchill had resigned from the Conservative Business Committee over Indian Home Rule, but with Baldwin's leadership reinvigorate it would be a long period of waiting.

Chamberlain and Baldwin had a strong partnership throughout their fourteen years at the height of politics together, but often they would frustrate one another. Chamberlain found Baldwin's sense of detachment and disinterest in the detail of policy to be highly frustrating, whilst Baldwin found Chamberlain's low opinion of the Labour Party to be highly disappointing. Despite their disagreements, their political partnership proved to be highly effective.

The National Government

In August 1931 Chamberlain headed the Conservative delegation in negotiations with the Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald as it sought to deal with a budget crisis. Throughout Chamberlain came to the conclusion that the most desirable outcome would be to form a National Government, which eventually occurred on August 24 1931. Chamberlain once more returned to the Ministry of Health with the specific task of encouraging local authorities to make cuts to their expenditure.

After the 1931 general election Chamberlain wa appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer a second time. He emerged as the most active Minister of the government and achieved a strong personal success when he successfully introduced tariffs, something that his father had long campaigned for. He was active in holding the line on government expenditures during the economic crisis of the 1930s, even, on occasion, over-ruling Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin on the need for economisation. For this he was criticised by Churchill of being excessively frugal with defense expenditures, particularly for the Royal Air Force.

However, his administrative successes as Exchequer made him the natural successor to Baldwin when the former retired after the Abdication and the Coronation of George VI.

Appointment as Prime Minister

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.

Some historians have claimed that Chamberlain was not even a Conservative at all, arguing that his technocratic approach to government, committment to social reform through state interventionism and disdain for benign paternalism place him beyond even that strand of radical Conservatism associated with Disraeli. In many areas his outlook was similar to those of the Fabians. Chamberlain himself never liked to use the term "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.

Chamberlain was a Unitarian and as such did not accept even nominally the basic trinitarian belief of the Church of England, the first Prime Minister to officially do so since the Duke of Grafton. This did not bar him from advising the King on appointments in the established church.

Domestic policy

Chamberlain's domestic policy receives little attention from historians but was considered to be highly significant and radical at the time. Achievements included the Factory Act 1937, which consolidated and tightened many existing mesaures and sought to improve working conditions by limiting the number of minors that youth and women could work and setting down standards of regulation on the workplace. The Housing Act 1938 provided subsidies that aimed to encourage slum clearance and the relief of overcrowding, as well as maintaining rent controls for cheap housing. The Physical Training Act 1937 promoted exercise and good dieting and aimed for a compulsory medical inspection of the population. The Coal Act 1938 nationalised mining royalties and allowed for the voluntary amalgamation of industries. Passenger air services were made into a public corporation in 1939. The Holidays with Pay Act 1938 gave paid holidays to over eleven million workers and empowered the Agricultural Wages Boards and Trade Boards to ensure that holidays were fixed with pay.

In many of these measures Chamberlain took a strong personal interest. One of his first actions as Prime Minister was to request two year plans from every single department and during his premiership he would make many contributions.

Some proposed reforms did not take place due to the outbreak of war, such as the raising of the school leaving age to 15, which would have otherwise commenced on September 1 1939. The Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, proposed a radical reform of the criminal justice system, including the abolition of flogging, which was also put on hold. Had peace continued and a general election been fought in 1939 or 1940 it seems likely that the government would have sought to radically extend the provision of pensions and health insurance, whilst also introducing family allowances.

Relations with Ireland

When Chamberlain became Prime Minister, relations between the United Kingdom and the Irish Free State had been heavily strained for some years. The two countries had engaged in tariff wars, whilst the government of Eamon de Valera was seeking to transform the country into an independent republic and to this extent had proposed the new constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, which was adopted at the end of 1937, transforming the Free State into Éire, a state that was internally a republic and which only retained the monarchy as an organ for external relations. The British government accepted the changes, formally stating that it did not regard tham as fundamentally altering the position of Ireland within the British Commonwealth.

De Valera also sought to overturn other aspects of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, most notably the partition that had created Northern Ireland, as well as seeking to reclaim control of the three "Treaty Ports" which had remained in British control. For his part Chamberlain wished to achieve peaceful relations between the two countries, mindful especially of the deterioriating European situation, the desirability of having support from a friendly neutral Ireland in time of war and the difficulty of using the ports for defence if Ireland was opposed. The United Kingdom was also claiming compensation from Ireland.

Eamon de Valera, Taoiseach of Ireland 1932-1948, with whom Chamberlain negotiated the 1938 Anglo-Irish Agreement, placing relations between their two countries on a friendly basis

Chamberlain, together with the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Malcolm MacDonald, and de Valera agreed to hold a conference starting in January 1938 to see if they could satisfactorily resolve the other issues of contention between their countries. De Valera hoped for the ending of partition, and to secure at the very least the neutrality of the British government on the matter, but the devolved government of Northern Ireland were inplacably opposed to any attempt to create a United Ireland and in February 1938 they called a Northern Ireland general election, fighting on the question of the border. The increased majority for the government of Lord Craigavon strengthened the Unionists' hand and made it difficult for the government to make any concessions here. Despite this de Valera proved willing to discuss the other points of contention.

The result of the conference was a strong and binding trade agreement between the two countries, whilst it was agreed that Britain would hand over the Treaty Ports to Irish control. Ireland agreed to pay Britain £10 million with wider claims cancelled. No settlement on partition was reached, whilst Chamberlain's hopes of being able to establish munitions factories in Ireland were not realised during the Second World War. However the two countries also issued a formal expression of friendship, and a strong relationship had been forged with de Valera, which is bourne out by the latter's letter upon Chamberlain's resignation:

I would like to testify that you did more than any former British Statesman to make a true friendship between the peoples of our two countries possible, and, if the task has not been completed, that it has not been for want of goodwill on your part.

The agreement was criticised at the time and subsequently by Winston Churchill, but he proved to be a lone voice of dissent with the Diehard wing of the Conservative Party no longer wishing to fight over the issue of Ireland. However others have argued that by resolving the issue, it resulted in Ireland taking a stance of benevolent neutrality during the Second World War (known in Ireland as The Emergency) and recent evidence has shown the extent to which the state helped the United Kingdom.

The Palestine White Paper

One of the greatest controversies during Chamberlain's premiership surrounded the government's policy on the future of the British Mandate of Palestine. After successive commissions and talks had failed to achieve a consensus, the government decided to bring forward proposals for a single independent state. Arguing that the Balfour Declaration's aim of a homeland for Jews in Palestine had been achieved now that over 450,000 had settled there, a quota was to be set of 75,000 further immigrants, with restrictions on the purchase of land. These proposals were set out in the MacDonald White Paper of 1939, so named after the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald.

The introduction of the White Paper caused massive outcry both in the Jewish world and within British politics. Many supporting the National Government were completely opposed to the policy, beleiving it to be a complete betrayal of the principal of a Jewish National Home. When the House of Commons voted on the proposals, many government MPs either voted against or abstained, including Cabinet Ministers such as the Jewish Leslie Hore-Belisha. Although adopted, progress on implementation was slow and when the Government fell the following year the plans were dropped.

European policy

Neville Chamberlain, as with many people in Europe who had witnessed the horrors of the First World War and its aftermath, was committed to peace at almost any price. Across the political spectrum in the major Western Democracies, there was a sense that war could, and should, be avoided by concession, negotiation and compromise. The theory was that dictatorships arose where peoples had grievances, and that by removing the source of these grievances, the dictatorship would become less aggressive. Chamberlain, as even his political detractors admitted, was an honourable man, and raised in the old school of European politics. It was his, and Britain's misfortune that the imperial rules and aristocratic norms that he would not believe had ended, were, indeed anachronistic. His attempts to deal with Nazi Germany through diplomatic channels, and to quell any sign of dissent from within, particularly from Churchill, were called by Chamberlain "The general policy of appeasement". (June 7, 1934)

Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler

The first crisis of Chamberlian's tenure was over the annexation of Austria. The Nazi Government of Hilter had already been behind the assassination of one Chancellor of Austria, and was pressuring another to surrender. Chamberlain's government was informed of Germany objectives, decided that they did not have the ability to stop events, and acquiesced to what later became known as the Anschluss.

The second crisis, over a section of Czechoslovakia, which was home to a large Germany minority, sometimes referred to as the Sudetenland, culminated in the Munich Agreement, which effectively allowed Adolf Hitler to annex the defensive frontier, and left the industrial and economic core within a day's reach of the Wehrmacht. 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, declaring war against Germany upon their invasion of Poland.

The repeated failures of the Baldwin government to deal with rising Nazi power are often laid, historically, on the doorstep of Chamberlain, since he presided over the final collapse of European affairs, resisted acting on military information, lied to the House of Commons about Nazi military strength, shunted out opposition which, correctly, warned of the need to prepare - and above all, failed to use the months profitably to ready for the oncoming conflict. However, it is also true that by the time of his Premiership, dealing with the Nazi Party in Germany was an order of magnitude more difficult. Germany had begun general conscription previously, and had already amassed a formidable U-Boat fleet and air arm. Chamberlain, caught between the bleak finances of the Depression era, and his own abhorence of war - and a Kriegsherr who would not be denied a war, gave ground and entered history as a political goat for what was a more general failure of political will and vision which had begun with the Versailles Treaty in 1919.

Chamberlain holds the paper containing the resolution to committ to peaceful methods signed by both Hitler and himself on his return from Germany in September 1938. He said:

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.

Appeasement in the present is defended by few, particularly in light of the results, and Chamberlain's own willingness to deceive the British public and go back on his word to Parliament. However, it should be remembered that a policy of keeping the peace had broad support: had the Commons wanted to appoint a more aggressive Prime Minister, Winston Churchill would have been the obvious choice. Even after the outbreak of war, it was not clear that the invasion of Poland need lead to a general conflict. What convicted Chamberlain in the eyes of many commentators and historians was not the policy itself, but his manner of carrying it out, and the failure to hedge his bets. Many of his contemporaries viewed him as stubborn and unwilling to accept criticism, an opinion backed up by his dismissal of cabinet ministers who disagreed with him on foreign policy. If accurate, this assessment of his personality would explain why Chamberlain strove to remain on friendly terms with the Third Reich long after many of his colleagues became convinced that Hitler could not be restrained.

Chamberlain believed passionately in peace for many reasons (most of which are discussed here), thinking it his job as Britain's leader to maintain stability in Europe; like many people in Britain and elsewhere, he thought that the best way to deal with Germany's belligerence was to treat it with kindness and meet its demands. He also believed that the leaders of men are essentially rational beings, and that Hitler must necessarily be rational as well. Most historians believe that Chamberlain, in holding to these views, pursued the policy of appeasement far longer than was justifiable, but it is not exactly clear whether any course could have averted war, and how much better the outcome would have been had armed hostilities begun earlier, given that France, as well, was unwilling to commit its forces, and there were no other effective allies: Italy had joined the Pact of Steel, the USSR had signed a non-aggression pact, and the United States was still officially isolationist.

Chamberlain was nicknamed "Monsieur J'aime Berlin" just before the outbreak of hostilities, and remained hopeful up until the invasion of the Low Countries by Germany that a peace treaty to avert a general war could be obtained in return for concessions "that we don't really care about". Again this policy was widely criticised both at the time and since, however, given that the French General Staff was determined not to attack Germany, but instead remain on the strategic defensive, what alternatives Chamberlain could have pursued were not clear. Instead, he took the months of the phony war to complete development of the Spitfire and Hurricane, and to strengthen the RDF or Radar defense grid in England. Both of these priorities would pay crucial dividends in the Battle of Britain.

Outbreak of war

On September 2nd, a day after Hitler's armies invaded Poland, Chamberlain told the House of Commons that if Germany would withdraw its troops, the British government would be willing to negotiate talks between Germany and Poland. The House, prepared to go to war over Germany's violation of Polish borders, was shocked by this final attempt on Chamberlain's part to avert what at that point seemed inevitable; by September 3rd, 1939, Chamberlain agreed with his ministers and declared war on Germany.

Fall and Resignation

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".

Because he had staked his war policy on gaining an early peace, and on the notion that England and France should wait until the Germans attacked, Chamberlian's mandate of confidence rested on the war being contained. 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.

Ministerial Appointments

During the three years of his premiership, Chamberlain's ministerial appointments were notable for his willingness to appoint regardless of any notion of balancing the parties supporting the National Government, whilst also appointing a number of ministers with no party political experience but instead with experience from the outside world. Such appointments included the Law Lord Lord Maugham as Lord Chancellor, the former First Sea Lord Lord Chatfield as Minister for Coordination of Defence, the businessman Andrew Duncan as President of the Board of Trade, the former Director-General of the BBC Sir John Reith as Minister of Information and the department store owner Lord Woolton as Minister of Food. Even when appointing exisitng MPs Chamberlain demonstrated a willingness to ignore conventional choices based on service and appoint MPs who had not been in the House of Commons very long, such as appointing the former civil servant and Governor of Bengal Sir John Anderson as the Minister in charge of Air Raid Precautions or the former President of the National Farmers Union Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith as Minister of Agriculture.

Neville Chamberlain's First Cabinet, May 1937 - September 1939

Key office holders not in the Cabinet:

David Margesson - Chief Whip

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. Halifax is succeeded as Leader of the House of Lords by Lord Stanhope, who remains President of the Board of Education as well.
March 1938: Lord Winterton, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, enters the Cabinet.
May 1938: Orsmby-Gore inherits the title Baron Harlech. He subsequently steps down from the government and is succeed by Malcolm MacDonald as Colonial Secretary. Lord Stanley succeeds MacDonald as Dominions Secretary. Kingsley Wood succeeds Lord Swinton as Secretary of State for Air. Walter Elliot succeeds Wood as Minister of Health. John Colville succeeds Elliot as Scottish Secretary.
October 1938: Lord Stanhope succeeds Duff Cooper as First Lord of the Admiralty, remaining also Leader of the House of Lords. Lord De La Warr succeeds Stanhope at the Board of Education. Sir John Anderson succeeds De La Warr as Lord Privy Seal, with special responsibility for Air Raid Precautions. Malcolm MacDonald succeeds Stanley (deceased) 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 Coordination of Defence. W.S. Morrison succeeds Lord Winterton at the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith succeeds Morrison as Minister of Agriculture.
April 1939: Leslie Burgin becomes Minister without Portfolio pending the legislation to create the Ministry of Supply. He is succeeded as Minister of Transport by Euan Wallace.
July 1939: 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:

Neville Chamberlain - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
Sir Samuel Hoare - Lord Privy Seal
Sir John Simon - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Lord Halifax - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Leslie Hore-Belisha - Secretary of State for War
Sir Kingsley Wood - Secretary of State for Air
Winston Churchill - First Lord of the Admiralty
Lord Chatfield - Minister for Coordination of Defence
Lord Hankey - Minister without Portfolio

Changes

January 1940: Oliver Stanley succeeds Leslie Hore-Belisha as Secretary of State for War.
April 1940: Sir Samuel Hoare succeeds Kingsley Wood as Secretary of State for Air. Wood succeeds as Hoare as Lord Privy Seal. Lord Chatfield leaves the Government and the office of Minister for Coordination of Defence is abolished.

Key office holders not in the Cabinet

David Margesson - Chief Whip

Changes

October 1939 - The position of Minister of Shipping is created, with Sir John Gilmour the first holder.

November 1939 - Lord Winterton resigns as Paymaster-General and no successor is appointed.

January 1940 - Oliver Stanley becomes Secretary of State for War and a member of the War Cabinet in succession to Leslie Hore-Belisha (resigned) (see above) and is succeeded as President of the Board of Trade by Andrew Duncan. Lord Macmillan resigns as Minister of Information and is succeeded by Sir John Reith.

April 1940 - Robert Hudson succeeds Sir John Gilmour (deceased) as Minister of Shipping. Lord De La Warr exchanges President of the Board of Education with Herwald Ramsbotham for First Commissioner of Works. William Shepherd Morrison swaps the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for the Postmaster General with George Tryon and is succeeded as Minister of Food by Lord Woolton.

May 1940 - Sir Terence O'Connor dies and no new Solicitor General is appointed before the government falls.

References

Gilbert, Martin. The Roots of Appeasement. New American Library, 1966.
James, Robert Rhodes. The British Revolution, 1880-1939. Knopf, 1977.

Preceded by: Frederick Kellaway	Postmaster General 1922–1923	Succeeded by: Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Bt
Preceded by: Office vacant	Paymaster-General 1923
Preceded by: Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen	Minister of Health 1923
Preceded by: Stanley Baldwin	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1923–1924	Succeeded by: Philip Snowden
Preceded by: John Wheatley	Minister of Health 1924–1929	Succeeded by: Arthur Greenwood
Preceded by: Arthur Greenwood	Minister of Health 1931	Succeeded by: Edward Hilton Young
Preceded by: Philip Snowden	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1931–1937	Succeeded by: Sir John Allsebrook Simon
Preceded by: Stanley Baldwin	Leader of the British Conservative Party 1937–1940	Succeeded by: Winston Churchill
Preceded by: Stanley Baldwin	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1937–1940	Succeeded by: Winston Churchill
Preceded by: The Earl Stanhope	Lord President of the Council 1940	Succeeded by: Sir John Anderson

de:Neville Chamberlain fr:Neville Chamberlain he:ארתור נוויל צ'מברליין ja:ネヴィル・チェンバレン pl:Neville Chamberlain uk:Чемберлен Артур Невіл