Rise of Neville Chamberlain
Mason College | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Occupations |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Political party | Conservative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 – 30 May 1929 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Constituency created | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Wilfrid Whiteley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The early life, business career and political rise of Neville Chamberlain culminated on 28 May 1937, when he was summoned to Buckingham Palace to "kiss hands" and accept the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Chamberlain had long been regarded as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's political heir, and when Baldwin announced his retirement, Chamberlain was seen as the only possible successor.
Chamberlain was born in 1869; his father was the politician and future Cabinet minister,
After returning to England in 1897, Chamberlain became a successful businessman in his home city of
In 1918, Chamberlain was elected to the
Early life
Chamberlain was born in a house called Southbourne, in the
Chamberlain attended
Businessman (1890–1911)
Joseph Chamberlain had difficulty living within his means, a problem exacerbated by investment losses in the late 1880s. In 1890, Sir
Neville Chamberlain resided in his father's Birmingham house, Highbury, a large part of which was shut up to save on expenses. His father and half-brother spent much of their time in London, where they were serving in the
Chamberlain's business interests did not completely fill his time, and he indulged his love of natural history and other outdoor pursuits. He spent many Sundays working in the gardens and greenhouses at Highbury. He enjoyed long walks in the countryside, and developed a passion for hunting and fishing. Even as he approached the heights of his political career, he would contribute articles to journals such as The Countryman.[19] In 1931, he stated, "I really can't consent to die until they arrange some fishing in the next world."[20] Chamberlain travelled extensively in Europe and North Africa, made a five-month tour to India, Ceylon and Burma in 1904–05, and according to his biographer, Robert Self, was one of the more travelled Prime Ministers.[21]
Chamberlain also involved himself in civic activities in Birmingham.[22] In 1906, Chamberlain was a founding member of the University House Committee at Birmingham University, the president of which was his aunt, Mrs Charles Beale, wife of the university's first Vice-Chancellor.[23] He became an Official Visitor and then a director of the Birmingham General Hospital. He advocated a larger facility for the hospital, a cause in which he was eventually successful, though building did not commence until 1934 and he was still fundraising as Prime Minister. Stating that he was painfully aware of the defects of his own education, he played a part in the establishment of the University of Birmingham, of which Mason Science College became a part.[24] Joseph Chamberlain became the university's first chancellor; Neville Chamberlain was appointed to its council and later to its Board of Governors.[25]
Though he declared himself uninterested in politics, Chamberlain supported his father's views loyally. He made speeches in support of British policy towards the
When he became Prime Minister in 1937 Chamberlain paid tribute to his wife:
I never should have become P.M. if I hadn't had Annie to help me. It isn't only that she charms every one into good humour & makes them think that a man can't be so bad who has a wife like that ... But besides all this she has softened & smoothed my natural impatience and dislike of anything with a whiff of humbug about it and I know she has saved me from making an impression of hardness that was not intended."[30]
Early political career (1911–1922)
Birmingham politician
While Chamberlain had continued to give speeches at general elections, his entry into politics at age 42 in 1911 stemmed from interest in local politics and the opportunities they offered for social improvement.
Upon his election, Chamberlain was made chairman of the Town Planning Committee, which sketched out four development schemes covering 15,000 acres (61 km2) in the city, allowing for suburban development while preserving green space. In 1913, he led a committee looking at housing conditions in Birmingham. It was a forerunner to the parliamentary Unhealthy Areas Committee (1919–21), of which he was chairman.[34] Chamberlain found that over 100,000 housing units lacked toilet facilities, with nearly half of those not even having running water.[35] He advocated gradual reorganisation to abate the problem, and warned that the city government must be ready to take over property if the private sector failed. Under Chamberlain's direction, Birmingham soon adopted one of the first town planning schemes in Britain which would, in time, be mirrored by other large industrial cities such as Liverpool and Leeds. However, the start of war in 1914 prevented implementation of his plans in Birmingham.[36]
With the outbreak of
Under Chamberlain, the group which became the
Director of National Service
Conscription for the Army, but not for civilian industry, had been brought in during the first half of 1916. Towards the end of Asquith's Government in 1916 a Manpower Distribution Board had been set up under Neville's brother Austen, but it had no executive powers. After
To a great extent Chamberlain's actual responsibilities were left vague by Lloyd George.[44] On his appointment Lloyd George implied in the House of Commons that "compulsion" (the industrial equivalent of conscription) was to be extended to industry and that Chamberlain would soon produce a system of industrial enrolment.[45] But Chamberlain found his work to be handicapped by the Prime Minister's political manoeuvres and need to appease the trade unions. As Chamberlain sought to maximise the number of workers subject both to military conscription and compulsion into industry, Lloyd George pledged to the unions that he would oppose any sort of "industrial conscription".[46] Although Chamberlain repeatedly made proposals for mandatory service, they were turned down by Lloyd George and his War Cabinet.[46] The Army still controlled its own recruitment at this stage, whilst Chamberlain met with resistance from the Ministries of Munitions and Labour. Chamberlain's proposal that all men under 21 be drafted from industry into the Army was blocked by Minister of Munitions Addison (19 January 1917), as it would have reduced munitions output by conscripting skilled young men who had already spent time in apprenticeships.[47]
Chamberlain was not made a
Denied the use of compulsion, Chamberlain had to persuade Britons to volunteer for essential war work, and fit young workers to leave the factories and enter the Army.[48] He had to address mass meetings and issue posters. He found that workers were reluctant to exchange the comforts of home and wartime salaries for the uncertainties of the trenches and a wage of one shilling a day.[46] Chamberlain had little confidence in voluntary schemes and they indeed proved unsuccessful, with only 9,000 workers freed to be drafted into the Army at a time when Britain was sustaining huge casualties.[49]
Chamberlain finally resigned on 8 August 1917. He was thanked warmly by the staff at St Ermin's Hotel where the Ministry was housed.
The relationship between Chamberlain and Lloyd George was thenceforth one of hatred, with Chamberlain calling Lloyd George "that dirty little Welsh Attorney"[52] and being implacably opposed to Lloyd George joining the National Government in the 1930s. Austen Chamberlain, the brother of one opponent and, for a time, the political ally of the other, regretted the enmity, "More's the pity, for together if they were together they might do a great deal."[53] Lloyd George would later paint a most unflattering portrait of Chamberlain in his 1935 War Memoirs,[54] claiming that "Mr Chamberlain is a man of rigid competency. Such men have their uses in conventional times … and are indispensable for filling subordinate posts at all times. But they are lost in an emergency or in creative tasks at any time." His dislike of Chamberlain is sometimes said to have been based on phrenology (According to Leo Amery, one of Lloyd George's fatal character flaws was to sum people up by their facial features, he had never seen anyone with such a small head, and he constantly called Neville "pin head"), although little contemporary evidence has been found to confirm this. Lloyd George would also have the last laugh in May 1940, when his speech in the Norway Debate helped bring down Chamberlain's government.[50]
Candidate and backbencher
Having resigned as Director, Chamberlain returned to Birmingham, embittered by his experience in London. He wrote that the experience "reminds me of the Bahamas when the plants didn't grow".[51] He had retained his seat on the City Council and busied himself with his civic duties, as well as his business interests and family life. In February 1918, having declined a third term as Lord Mayor, he was appointed Deputy Mayor.[55]
Chamberlain had formed a close friendship with his cousin, Norman Chamberlain, who had also served on the City Council and who shared the future Prime Minister's social ideals. In December 1917, Norman Chamberlain was reported missing in action during the Battle of Cambrai, and in February 1918, Norman's body was found—a great blow to Neville Chamberlain, who described Norman as "the most intimate friend I had".[56] Through the rest of his career, Neville Chamberlain laboured to further the ideals of his cousin, and wrote his biography—the only book he ever wrote. Some historians relate Norman's death to a hatred of war on his cousin's part which led to appeasement; according to Chamberlain's biographer Nick Smart, the death did not cause Chamberlain to hate World War I, and any influence on his later positions is far from certain.[56]
After some hesitation as to his future career, Chamberlain determined to enter Parliament, though, after his experience with National Service, he feared that he would only have a brief, unsatisfying parliamentary career.[57] Wishing to stand for a Birmingham constituency, he initially had some difficulty in finding one.[58] The Representation of the People Act 1918 gave Birmingham five additional seats,[59] and Chamberlain was adopted as candidate for one of the new seats, Birmingham Ladywood.[60] With the election on hold until the conclusion of the war, he continued his work in Birmingham. Shortly after the Armistice, his sister Beatrice died in the influenza pandemic, and Chamberlain mourned her, "She had the warmest heart." [61] With the war ended, a general election was called almost immediately. Chamberlain stood as a Unionist (as the Conservative Party was known from 1912 to 1925) and was given the "coupon" or letter of endorsement granted by Coalition party leaders Lloyd George and Bonar Law to approved candidates, though he declined to make any use of it.[60] He was elected with almost 70% of the vote and a majority of 6,833.[62] At age 49, he remains the oldest man to enter Parliament for the first time and later become Prime Minister.[63]
Chamberlain threw himself into Parliamentary work, begrudging the times when he was unable to attend debates and spending much time on committee work. When Austen Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the continued coalition government led by the
Unionist backbenchers had long been restive as Lloyd George granted the Liberals in the Coalition more than their proportionate share of offices.
Minister (1922–1937)
Bonar Law Government; early ministerial office
Many frontbench Unionists refused to serve under Bonar Law, who was forced to form his Cabinet from lower-ranking party members.[71] Liberal MP Winston Churchill, who would lose his seat in the upcoming election, dubbed Bonar Law's ministry "a government of the second eleven".[b][72] The conflict amongst the Unionists greatly benefited Neville Chamberlain, who rose, over the course of ten months, from backbencher to Chancellor of the Exchequer.[71]
Bonar Law appointed Chamberlain as Postmaster General, a ministerial post below Cabinet level.[73] Bonar Law called an election shortly after his accession, which the Unionists won, and Chamberlain was re-elected, though his prediction that his seat was "safe as houses" proved dubious—his majority was reduced to 2,443.[74] In January 1923, Chamberlain granted the first operating licence to the British Broadcasting Company, though he opposed its request to broadcast the King's Speech setting forth the Government's programme in opening Parliament. Chamberlain feared that allowing the speech to be aired would lead to broadcast of parliamentary debates over the radio, "a prospect which makes one shudder".[73]
Sir
In May 1923, Bonar Law was diagnosed with advanced terminal throat cancer. He immediately resigned, and King George V sent for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stanley Baldwin, to form a government. Baldwin served as his own Chancellor for three months while he sought a successor and then promoted Chamberlain to the position.[78] Chamberlain had little time for any policy changes, as he served only five months in the office and did not present a budget. Though the Unionists had an ample majority in the House of Commons and the current Parliament had four years to run, Baldwin decided that a general election was needed and that the Unionists should fight it on the issue of tariff reform. He hoped to gain both a personal mandate as Prime Minister and a policy mandate for his tariff proposals. He miscalculated badly: in the general election held in December 1923 the Unionists remained the largest party in the House of Commons, but were outnumbered by the combined Liberal and Labour MPs. The Baldwin Government retained office until it was defeated when Parliament assembled in January 1924, and Ramsay MacDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister. Chamberlain's majority in Birmingham Ladywood was cut yet again, this time to 1,500 votes.[79]
With the Unionists in opposition, Chamberlain managed to broker a reconciliation between his brother (and the other Coalitionists) and the new leadership, and Austen Chamberlain resumed his place on the front benches. The Labour government fell within months, necessitating another general election. Neville Chamberlain was challenged by Labour candidate Oswald Mosley, who later led the British Union of Fascists. Mosley campaigned aggressively in Ladywood; and accused Chamberlain of being a "landlords' hireling".[80] The outraged Chamberlain demanded that Mosley retract the claim "as a gentleman".[80] Mosley, whom Baldwin described as "a cad and a wrong 'un", refused to retract the allegation.[80] It took several recounts before Chamberlain was declared the winner by 77 votes and Mosley blamed poor weather for the result.[81] Chamberlain had not wanted to desert Ladywood, but now deemed the seat impossible to hold and was adopted for Birmingham Edgbaston for the next election (held in 1929),[82] at which Ladywood fell to Labour by eleven votes.[83] The Unionists won the 1924 election, their last under that name before reverting to the older name "Conservative". Baldwin formed a new government, in which Austen was Foreign Secretary and Neville Chamberlain declined to serve again as Chancellor, preferring his former position as Minister of Health.[84]
Minister of Health
Within two weeks of his appointment as Minister of Health, Chamberlain presented the Cabinet with an agenda containing 25 pieces of legislation he hoped to see enacted. Before he left office in 1929, 21 of the 25 had passed into law.
Chamberlain sought the abolition of the elected
Though Chamberlain struck a conciliatory note during the
With many mining communities suffering high levels of unemployment following the General Strike, some Poor Law boards granted relief to unemployed workers by misusing provisions intended for exceptional circumstances. These boards used the provisions to give benefits to nearly all applicants. With the system thrown into crisis, Chamberlain sought legislation to permit the Minister of Health to dismiss recalcitrant boards, and later got Parliament to pass further legislation to prescribe criminal penalties to members of such boards. Though no board members were prosecuted, Chamberlain dismissed three boards, replacing their members with his own appointees.
Return to opposition
Baldwin called a general election for 30 May 1929. Chamberlain expected the Conservatives to triumph easily, and thought he would be moved either to the Exchequer or be asked to serve at the Colonial Office, where Joseph Chamberlain had made his mark.[98] Chamberlain easily won in Edgbaston, which he represented for the rest of his life, but the general election resulted in a hung parliament, with Labour holding the most seats. Baldwin and his Government resigned, and Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald took office.[99]
Chamberlain anticipated that Labour would govern for two years, then seek another general election and be returned for a second term with an overall majority in Parliament. He believed that, were this to occur, at 67 he might well be too old to hold office again when that term expired.
The campaign by the press lords, notably
In 1931, the MacDonald Government faced a serious crisis, as the May Report revealed that the budget was unbalanced, with an expected shortfall of £120 million. As this information became public, there was a run on the pound, depleting the nation's gold reserves. The Labour Party refused to consider the massive cuts in unemployment compensation which would be needed to balance the budget, and Prime Minister MacDonald sought support from outside his party. With Baldwin on holiday in France, Chamberlain negotiated for the Conservatives. Chamberlain told MacDonald that the Conservatives would only join a coalition if the full recommended cuts in unemployment compensation were made. Finally, on 24 August 1931, the Labour Government resigned and MacDonald formed a National Government, supported by most Conservative and Liberal MPs and a minority of the Labour Party.[108] Chamberlain once more returned to the Ministry of Health.[109] The National Government was intended as only a temporary expedient, but governed Britain until Chamberlain's fall in 1940.[110] In the ensuing General Election, the National Government won 554 of the 615 seats in the House of Commons, with 473 of its supporters Conservative MPs.[109]
Chancellor and Conservative heir apparent
After the election, MacDonald wanted to designate Liberal National Walter Runciman, an advocate of free trade, as Chancellor. Conservatives insisted that a member of their party who favoured tariffs be given the office. Reluctantly, MacDonald designated Chamberlain as Chancellor, and Runciman was made President of the Board of Trade.[111] Chamberlain proposed a 10% tariff on foreign goods, with lower or no tariffs on goods from the colonies and the Dominions. Joseph Chamberlain had advocated a similar policy, "Imperial Preference"; his sons found it pleasing and appropriate that Chamberlain could now promote his father's policies, and Sir Austen Chamberlain wrote to his brother in November 1931, "Father's great work will be completed in his children."[112]
The tariff issue bitterly divided the Cabinet, and threatened to end the National Government. The Cabinet accepted a proposal by
I think he would have found consolation for the bitterness of his disappointments, if he could have seen that these proposals, which are the direct and legitimate descendants of his own conception, would be laid before the House of Commons, which he loved, in the presence of one and by the lips of another of the two immediate successors to his name and blood.[115]
At the end of the speech, Sir Austen Chamberlain walked down and shook his brother's hand. The Import Duties Act 1932 passed Parliament easily.[116] The Ottawa Conference that August produced little result, with Chamberlain bringing home several minor bilateral trade agreements, and no general agreement.[117]
In the interim between the Import Duties Act and the Ottawa Conference, Chamberlain presented his first budget, in April 1932. The gold standard had been abandoned in the early days of the National Government; the Bank of England sought its restoration. Chamberlain, on advice from his officials, declined to restore the gold standard, realising that a devalued pound would improve the balance of trade.[118] Otherwise, Chamberlain maintained the severe budget cuts that had been agreed to at the inception of the National Government:[119] Chamberlain cut means-tested benefits and public sector wages, which proved to be an unpopular move. He also cut interest rates, which led to a housebuilding boom in the south of England and supported plans to clear slums.[120] Interest on the war debt had been a major cost in each budget. Chamberlain was able to reduce the interest rate on most of Britain's war debt from 5% to 3.5%. Between 1932 and 1938, Chamberlain halved the percentage of the budget devoted to payment of interest on the war debt.[118]
Chamberlain hoped that a cancellation of the war debt owed to the United States could be negotiated. In June 1933, Britain hosted the
In 1934, Chamberlain was able to declare a budget surplus, and restore many of the cuts in unemployment compensation and civil servant's salaries he had made after taking office. He told the Commons, "We have now finished the story of Bleak House and are sitting down this afternoon to enjoy the first chapter of Great Expectations."[115] With MacDonald in physical and mental decline and Conservative Party leader Baldwin exhibiting ever greater lethargy, Chamberlain increasingly became the workhorse of the National Government.[123]
Defence spending had been heavily cut in Chamberlain's early budgets.
In 1935, MacDonald stood down as Prime Minister, taking Baldwin's post as Lord President of the council, and Baldwin became Prime Minister for the third time. Chamberlain remained at the Treasury, almost the only Cabinet member not to be moved in the subsequent reshuffle. Chamberlain was still spoken of as 'heir apparent', but feared being eclipsed by a younger man. To be seen more as the second man of the Government, he insisted on moving into
In January 1936,
Appraisal
Polemics such as Guilty Men, which helped demolish Chamberlain's reputation for his foreign policy as premier, also touched on his record as minister. These books blamed the National Government, in which Chamberlain had taken a leading role, for a failure to rearm.[132] Historian David Dutton suggested in his book on Chamberlain that the damage to his reputation, both as Prime Minister and as a Cabinet minister, could have been contained had the Conservative Party defended his policies, but for 23 years after Chamberlain's death, the party leaders (Churchill, Anthony Eden, and Harold Macmillan) had made reputations as opponents of appeasement, and who were little minded to defend Chamberlain's record as a minister. The Labour landslide in the 1945 General Election cemented this inclination, with Macmillan stating that it was not "Churchill who had brought the Conservative party so low. On the contrary it was the recent history of the Party, with its pre-war record of unemployment and its failure to preserve peace."[133]
The adoption of policies using Keynesian economics led to other criticisms of Chamberlain's ministerial record. Popular wisdom then held that governments could keep unemployment at a low level through spending. Chamberlain's acceptance of unemployment as an inevitable part of the business cycle was seen as outdated.[134] In 1958, as Prime Minister, Macmillan described a report advocating limits on public investment as "a very bad paper. Indeed a disgraceful paper. It might have been written by Mr. Neville Chamberlain's Government."[133]
In 1961, a controversial biography of Chamberlain by Conservative Party chairman Iain Macleod defended Chamberlain's ministerial record. Macleod pointed out that Chamberlain had been a "most valiant" champion of rearmament as Chancellor as early as 1934, but that little was done.[135] According to Time magazine, Macleod saw Chamberlain as a "humanitarian industrialist, [a] progressive Lord Mayor of Birmingham and a dedicated Minister of Health who was damned as a 'Tory socialist'[.] Chamberlain had worked tirelessly in the '20s and '30s for the 'noble and fascinating ideal' of fashioning a better life for Britain's workingman."[135]
The 1960s and 1970s saw a further reassessment of Chamberlain as a Cabinet minister. Historians such as A. J. P. Taylor pointed out that while the 1930s were a decade of misery for some, for most Britons, it was a time of rising living-standards, with unemployment concentrated in only a few regions of the country.[136] As economists and historians came to question the assumption that the National Government could have spent its way out of unemployment, Chamberlain's tenure as Chancellor was to an extent rehabilitated.[137] American social historian Bentley Gilbert stated that Chamberlain was "the most successful social reformer in the seventeen years between 1922 and 1939 ... after 1922 no one else is really of any significance."[137] According to Taylor, writing in 1965, Chamberlain did more to improve local government while serving as Health Minister than did anyone else in the 20th century.[138]
In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher instituted economic policies reminiscent of Chamberlain's as Chancellor—control of inflation (even at the expense of unemployment), minimisation of budget deficits, and low rates of direct taxation.[139] This was a point not lost on the Labour Party, and the Trades Union Congress adopted a slogan of "Forwards to the Eighties not Backwards to the Thirties".[137] Thatcher's critics denigrated both her policies and those of the 1930s in such comparisons, but she did not care to defend those of the 1930s. Thatcher stated that the historical justifications for her economic positions were the policies of the Victorian era.[140]
Dutton, who traced the progress of Chamberlain's reputation through the years, wrote in 2001 that Chamberlain's accomplishments at the Ministry of Health were "considerable achievements by any standards" and stated that they should not be seen in isolation, but as part of "the authentic Chamberlain, a man who was throughout his life on the progressive left of the Conservative party, a committed believer in social progress and in the power of government at both the national and local level, to do good."[141] Five years later, Chamberlain biographer Graham Macklin quoted Dutton in noting the eclipse of Chamberlain's earlier accomplishments by his later policy of appeasement:
As [Chamberlain's] entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography observed, "Had Chamberlain retired in 1937, he would not have risked anything. He would have been a considerable figure in British political history, his career a study in success." But Chamberlain did not retire. He accepted the premiership imagining it to be his crowning glory. As it transpired it was his most bitter personal and political defeat. Thus was the "authentic Chamberlain"—the sincere social reformer—almost entirely obliterated from the popular consciousness by subsequent history and historiography.[142]
Parliamentary election results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 9,405 | 69.5 | ||
Labour | John Kneeshaw | 2,572 | 19.0 | ||
Liberal | Margery Corbett Ashby | 1,552 | 11.5 | ||
Majority | 6,833 | 50.5 | |||
Turnout | 13,529 | 40.6 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 13,032 | 55.2 | -14.3 | |
Labour | Robert Dunstan | 10,589 | 44.8 | 25.8 | |
Majority | 2,443 | 10.4 | -40.1 | ||
Turnout | 23,621 | 71.1 | +30.5 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -15.6 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 12,884 | 53.2 | -2.0 | |
Labour | Robert Dunstan | 11,330 | 46.8 | 2.0 | |
Majority | 1,554 | 6.4 | -4.0 | ||
Turnout | 24,214 | 72.0 | +0.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -2.0 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 13,374 | 49.1 | -4.1 | |
Labour | Oswald Mosley | 13,297 | 48.9 | 2.1 | |
Liberal | Alfred William Bowkett | 539 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
Majority | 77 | 0.2 | -3.8 | ||
Turnout | 27,200 | 80.5 | +8.5 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -3.1 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 23,350 | 63.7 | -12.9 | |
Labour | William Henry Dashwood Caple | 8,590 | 23.4 | 0.0 | |
Liberal | Percy Reginald Coombs Young | 4,720 | 12.9 | 12.9 | |
Majority | 14,760 | 40.3 | -12.9 | ||
Turnout | 36,166 | 70.0 | +5.1 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -6.5 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 33,085 | 86.5 | 22.8 | |
Labour | W.W. Blaylock | 5,157 | 13.5 | -9.9 | |
Majority | 27,928 | 73.0 | -40.1 | ||
Turnout | 38,242 | 70.9 | +0.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +16.4 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Neville Chamberlain | 28,243 | 81.6 | -4.9 | |
Labour | Jerrold Adshead | 6,381 | 18.4 | 4.9 | |
Majority | 21,862 | 63.2 | -9.8 | ||
Turnout | 34,624 | 62.4 | +8.5 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -4.9 |
Notes
Explanatory notes
- ^ Chamberlain blamed his failure on his lack of political experience, an explanation not accepted by Lloyd George's biographer John Grigg, as the shipowner Joseph Maclay – who in a breach of convention was not a member of either House – made a great success of the job of Minister of Shipping. Chamberlain's biographer Iain Macleod (1961, p61), himself a Conservative Cabinet Minister, argued that he had made the mistake of waiting to be told what to do, and that by Christmas Day 1916 he should have been threatening resignation unless given clear instructions, as such a threat is strongest when a minister is first appointed. Grigg argues that much of Chamberlain's failure can be put down to lack of self-confidence. He also argues that Chamberlain later displayed disastrously excessive confidence as Prime Minister, having in between been an "outstanding" Minister of Health and a "competent" Chancellor. (Grigg 2002 p212)
- ^ A British term for the association football or cricket players who do not play on the top team, but who make up a team immediately below them in rank. Most common in schools.
- ^ Baldwin was quoting a letter by his cousin, Rudyard Kipling, see Fitzgerald 2004.
- Munich Conference; Disraeli had used the phrase about his return from the Congress of Berlinin 1878.
Citations
- ^ a b Crozier 2004–09.
- ^ Macklin 2006, p. 11.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 1.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 2.
- ^ a b Smart 2010, pp. 2–3.
- ^ a b c Self 2006, p. 21.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 6–8.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 22.
- ^ a b MeasuringWorth.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 9.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 26.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 26–28.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 33.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Dutton 2001, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 29.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 30.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 31.
- ^ Archives, National. "National Archives – letters from Neville Chamberlain re – building of University House". UH/1/25 No date.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 38.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 39.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b Self 2006, pp. 33–35.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 49.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 37.
- ^ a b Self 2006, p. 40.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 53.
- ^ Wrigley 2003, p. 4.
- ^ Simon, Pepper. "Homes Unfit for Heroes: The Slum Problem in London and Neville Chamberlain's Unhealthy Areas Committee, 1919–21". Town planning Review. General Social Science Journals. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b Self 2006, p. 41.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 61.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 62.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 63.
- ^ a b Self 2006, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Grigg 2002, p. 211-2.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 67.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 71.
- ^ Grigg 2002, p. 212-3.
- ^ a b c Smart 2010, p. 73.
- ^ a b c Grigg 2002, p. 213.
- ^ a b Macklin 2006, p. 20.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 77–79.
- ^ a b c Grigg 2002, p. 214.
- ^ a b Dutton 2001, p. 11.
- ^ a b Macklin 2006, p. 21.
- ^ Macklin 2006, p. 22.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 70.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 70–71.
- ^ a b Smart 2010, p. 84.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 68.
- ^ Dilks 1984, p. 252.
- ^ Dilks 1984, p. 260.
- ^ a b Dilks 1984, p. 262.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 71–72.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 73.
- ^ Englefield 1995, p. 388.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 74.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 79–80.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 91.
- ^ a b Smart 2010, p. 96.
- ^ Taylor 1965, p. 195.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 98–99.
- ^ a b Self 2006, p. 87.
- ^ Taylor 1965, p. 196.
- ^ a b Self 2006, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 86.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 89.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 106–07.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 112–15.
- ^ a b c Macklin 2006, p. 24.
- ^ Macklin 2006, p. 25.
- ^ Dilks 1984, pp. 481–82.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 103.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 14.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 106.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 107.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 108.
- ^ Dilks 1984, p. 432.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 116–18.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 109.
- ^ a b Smart 2010, p. 136.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 115.
- ^ Dilks 1984, p. 521.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 113.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 429.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 139–40.
- ^ Dilks 1984, p. 576.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 143.
- ^ Dilks 1984, pp. 584–86.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 15.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 140.
- ^ Macklin 2006, pp. 26–27.
- ^ a b Macklin 2006, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 148.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 149.
- ^ a b Self 2006, p. 150.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 16.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 160–62.
- ^ a b Self 2006, p. 161.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 158.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 161–62.
- ^ Self 2006, p. 163.
- ^ Self 2006, pp. 165–66.
- ^ Selden & 1932-02-05.
- ^ a b Dutton 2001, p. 17.
- ^ Smart 2010, p. 173.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 177–80.
- ^ a b c Smart 2010, p. 174.
- ^ Macklin 2006, p. 32.
- ^ BBC News 2004.
- ^ Time & 1933-06-19.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 186–87.
- ^ a b Dutton 2001, p. 18.
- ^ Macklin 2006, p. 36.
- ^ a b Macklin 2006, pp. 36–42.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 116.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 19.
- ^ Smart 2010, pp. 199–200.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 40.
- ^ Macklin 2006, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Smart 1999, p. 148.
- ^ Dutton 2001, pp. 76–77.
- ^ a b Dutton 2001, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Dutton 2001, pp. 79–81.
- ^ a b Time & 1961-12-08.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 147.
- ^ a b c Dutton 2001, p. 149.
- ^ Taylor 1965, p. 256.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 150.
- ^ Dutton 2001, p. 151.
- ^ Dutton 2001, pp. 192–93.
- ^ Macklin 2006, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Craig 1977, p. 87.
- ^ Craig 1977, p. 83.
References
Books
- Craig, F. W. S. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949 (revised ed.). The Macmillan Press Ltd.
- ISBN 978-0-521-89401-2.
- Dutton, David (2001). Neville Chamberlain. Hodder Arnold. ISBN 978-0-340-70627-5.
- Englefield, Dermot (1995). Facts About the British Prime Ministers. H. W. Wilson Co. ISBN 978-0-8242-0863-9.
- Grigg, John (2002). Lloyd George: War Leader. Allen Lane, London. ISBN 978-0-5712-7749-0.
- Macklin, Graham (2006). Chamberlain. Haus Books. ISBN 978-1-904950-62-2.
- Meynell, Wilfrid (1903). Benjamin Disraeli: an unconventional biography. Vol. 1. Hutchinson & Co.
- Self, Robert (2006). Neville Chamberlain: A Biography. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-5615-9.
- Smart, Nick (1999). The National Government. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-22329-8.
- Smart, Nick (2010). Neville Chamberlain. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-45865-8.
- Taylor, A.J.P. (1965). English History, 1914–1945. Oxford University Press.
- Wrigley, Chris (2003). A Companion to Early Twentieth-Century Britain. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-21790-9.
Journals
- "The World Confers". Time. 19 June 1933. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2007.
- "Historical Notes: Requiem for a lightweight". Time. 8 December 1961. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
Online sources
- Crozier, Andrew J. (September 2004). "Chamberlain, (Arthur) Neville (1869–1940), prime minister". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32347. Retrieved 9 November 2009. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.) (subscription required)
- Fitzgerald, Brian (1 October 2004). "Conversazioni to examine journalistic abuse and the need for change". B.U. Bridge. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- "Longest-serving chancellors". BBC News. 15 June 2004. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
- "Purchasing Power of British Pounds 1264–2008". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 13 October 2009. (RPI equivalents)
- Selden, Charles (5 February 1932). "British 10% tariff goes to Commons". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2009. (subscription required)
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Neville Chamberlain
- University of Birmingham Special Collections The political papers of Neville Chamberlain