Basic Information
Name: Arthur Neville Chamberlain
Nickname: Longbottom, Mr. Appeasement
Born: March 18, 1869
Died: November 9, 1940
Nationality: British
Hometown: Birmingham, England
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: City councilman, Mayor, Director General of the Department of National Service, Member of Parliament, postmaster general, minister of health, Prime Minister
Education: Rugby School, Mason College (University of Birmingham)
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Joseph Chamberlain, Florence Kenrick
Siblings: Ethel, Ida and Hilda, and two older half-siblings, Beatrice and Austen
Spouse: Anne Vere Cole
Children: Dorothy, Francis
Friends: Lord Halifax, Sir Horace Wilson, Lord Dunglass (Alec Douglas Home), 'Rab' Butler
Foes: Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Adolph Hitler
Analysis
Poor Neville Chamberlain. He's had a bad rep since resigning as prime minister in 1940. He spent most of the 1930s letting Hitler do his thing, thinking he was preventing world war. And the Munich pact he waved in the air to cheering throngs of Brits turned out to be basically scrap paper.
Yeah, clearly that approach didn't work so well, but to be fair to Neville, most Brits had the same idea.
Except Winston Churchill—but he was the exception rather than the rule.
When Churchill gave the "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat" speech to Parliament, he'd just replaced Chamberlain as prime minister three days earlier. The recently-resigned PM was also a member of Churchill's war cabinet, which meant he was part of the audience that heard the "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat" speech.
Birmingham Bro
Chamberlain was the son of a prominent Birmingham businessman and politician. He made a name for himself in business at 21 by managing an estate in the Bahamas (source). Talk about a rough gig. When can we start?
He got into politics in 1911, when he was elected to Birmingham's city council. His political career took off quickly, so much so that he was appointed Director General of the Department of National Service by Prime Minister David Lloyd George only five years later. That didn't last because Chamberlain and Lloyd George didn't get along very well, and they just couldn't make it work (source).
Chamberlain made his way into Parliament by 1918 as a member of the Conservative Party, and was a cabinet member with his half-brother Austen by the mid-1920s. By the way, Austen won a Noble Peace Prize during this time, so Neville still had some catching up to do. Maybe that's why he was so gung-ho about getting an agreement with Hitler.
Sibling rivalry—we've been there.
Neville the Negotiator
After Neville secured his place as an integral member of government, he helped usher in "New Conservatism," which laid the foundation for Britain's welfare state (source). When he became prime minister in 1937, he continued to enact policies aimed at helping the working classes. For example, the Factories Act limited working hours for women and children.
As Nazi Germany emerged as a possible threat to Europe, Chamberlain was determined to not lead the country into another war. Like many other Brits, he had lived through the first world war, and he didn't want to be the guy who let another one happen without doing everything he could to stop it (source). Most members of Parliament supported his "policy of appeasement," which resulted in the Munich Pact of 1938, where Germany agreed not to invade anyone in exchange for the Sudentenland of Czechoslovakia.
Ha.
Chamberlain's triumphant return to London after signing the Munich Pact saw massive, cheering crowds that were so enthusiastic, even the normally stoic, reserved Chamberlain was—gasp!— emotionally affected (source). His uncharacteristic emotional moment led him to reference a famous quote from another famous politician, Benjamin Disraeli, and declare he had achieved "peace in our time."
Another famous dude to use that line? Tony Stark. It's a classic.
How the Mighty Have Fallen
Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, violating the short-lived Munich Pact big-time. Things didn't go so well for Neville after that. He was slow to respond to Hitler's invasion of Poland in September, which hurt his popularity further (source).
After the disaster of Germany's invasion of Norway and the major western offensive Hitler began in the Netherlands, Chamberlain (and many MPs) decided he wasn't the right man for the job anymore. He resigned as prime minister on May 10, 1940, the first day of the German invasion of the Low Countries. When France was invaded and Great Britain declared war, Chamberlain said:
This is a sad day for all of us, and to none is it sadder than to me. Everything that I have worked for, everything that I have believed in during my public service, has crashed into ruins. […] I trust I may live to see the day when Hitlerism has been destroyed and a liberated Europe has been re-established. (Source)
He didn't live to see that day.
Churchill kept Chamberlain on as a member of his cabinet, but Neville died of cancer in November 1940. Sadly, he knew that he'd be remembered not-so-fondly for his attempts at appeasement and the disastrous results. Churchill is said to have joked, "Poor Neville will come badly out of history. I know, I will write that history." (source). But he was gracious in the days after Chamberlain's death, saying:
It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart—the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril and certainly in utter disdain of popularity or clamor. (Source)
It's Now or Neville
Sure enough, Chamberlain is most remembered for his failed policy of appeasement. Nowadays, there are those who think he's been unfairly maligned for a policy that was supported by many of his colleagues (source).
Oh, and the king as well.
Chamberlain may not have achieved peace in his time, but prior to that minor failure, he had a notable twenty-year career in British politics. Moral of the story: you let one homicidal dictator take over Europe and slaughter millions, and it's like nothing else you do matters.