The Chamberlains

A Talented Migrant Arrives in Birmingham

Joseph Chamberlain, aged 18, moves from London to join his uncle’s Nettlefold’s wood screw making business in Smethwick. His drive, mastery of detail and marketing gifts, will make it the world leader in the field, and him his fortune.

Find Out More: P. Marsh Joseph Chamberlain – Entrepreneur in Politics

Chamberlain Steps into the Political Arena

Shocked at the state of children’s education in Birmingham, Chamberlain helped establish the National Education League, a national organisation campaigning for free, compulsory, non-denominational education. He became its dynamic, articulate chairman, while also winning election to the Birmingham Town Council.

Find out more: A. Reekes The Birmingham Political Machine

Annus Mirabilis: Joseph Elected Mayor of Birmingham & School Board Chairman

Joseph’s Mayoralty wrought a municipal revolution in Birmingham, providing gas and clean water, improving pavements, clearing slums and opening parks. His tenure at the School Board saw nearly 40 new schools built. As a result, Birmingham became ‘the best governed city in the world.’

Find out more: R. Ward City-State and Nation

Family Tragedy – The Death of Florence Chamberlain

Florence was Joseph’s second wife and mother of Hilda, Ida, Neville, and Ethel. Her death in childbirth left her children and stepchildren, Austen and Beatrice, motherless. Joseph was bereft; he lost his religious faith and buried himself in his political work.

Find out more: P. Marsh The Chamberlain Litany

Joseph Chamberlain is Elected to Parliament

Fulfilling a sense of destiny, Chamberlain moved on from municipal to national politics as a Liberal MP for Birmingham. He felt only national legislation could affect social change. Thirty productive, sometimes controversial and divisive, years in Parliament followed.

Further Reading: A. Reekes: The Birmingham Political Machine

Highbury is Completed

Now a Cabinet minister (President of the Board of Trade), Joseph Chamberlain envisaged Highbury (designed by the architect J. H. Chamberlain) as consolidating his rise into the political elite. It would be both family home and power hub, the centre of operations, a place to plan, write speeches, and host supporters and important visitors.

Find out more: P. Marsh and J. Pick The House where the Weather was Made
S. Roberts Joseph Chamberlain’s Highbury

Opposition & Division

Joseph Chamberlain leads opposition to Gladstone and divides the Liberal Party over home rule. Highbury becomes the centre of a new Birmingham Liberal Unionist Party. Building an impregnable electoral base; by 1892 over 30 Midlands seats fell under his sway. He allied with the Conservatives and was now known as ‘the man who made the (political) weather in Britain.’ (W. Churchill)

Find out more: I. Cawood The Liberal Unionist Party – A History

Marriage to Mary Endicott

Joseph Chamberlain fell in love in America while arbitrating a dispute between the USA and Canada. Mary Endicott, his beautiful young bride, would transform his life, his family’s, and Highbury, by her warmth, vivacity and talent as a society hostess.

Find out more: P. Marsh The Chamberlain Litany

Two Chamberlains Join the Government with Joseph Chamberlain Leading

the charge, the Liberal Unionists did well in the 1895 General Election. Allied to the Conservatives, Joseph was rewarded with the role of Colonial Secretary, and Austen appointed Civil Lord of the Admiralty. Joseph was now empowered to consolidate, even expand, the British Empire.

Find out more: T. L. Crosby: Joseph Chamberlain – A Most Radical Imperialist

Joe’s War

Joseph Chamberlain was the driving force behind Britain’s war against the Boers. A public much infected with jingoistic Imperialism saw him as its personification and he was feted after the eventual victory in 1902. However, the Chamberlains were mercilessly attacked by Lloyd for profiteering from war contracts with Kynochs, Hoskins, Tubes and BSA.

Find out more: T. L. Crosby: Joseph Chamberlain – A Most Radical Imperialist

A University for Birmingham

Passionate about education all his life, Joseph envisioned England’s first new civic university for his beloved city, to teach not just commerce and economics (as did Birmingham’s Mason College) but also humanities and sciences. He campaigned tirelessly for funds (helped by Carnegie generosity); the university opened in 1900.

Find out more: P. Marsh: Joseph Chamberlain – Entrepreneur in Politics

A Sensational & Momentous Birmingham Speech

In one of the most dramatic speeches in British political history Joseph abandoned orthodox Free Trade; heretically, he called for tariffs to protect British industry from cheap imports. He resigned from government, fractured his party and spent three years fruitlessly trying to win over a sceptical country. Austen, at least, benefited; he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Find out more: A Reekes: Speeches that Changed Britain

Triumph & Tragedy

The January 1906 General Election was a crushing defeat for Chamberlain’s Unionists, largely due to his tariff reform policy. Everywhere, except Birmingham, where all his candidates triumphed – a massive personal endorsement. In July, thousands cheered him through the streets, celebrating his 70th birthday and 30 years as Birmingham MP. Within days, he had suffered a devastating stroke.

Find out more: A. Reekes The Birmingham Political Machine

The End of an Era

Joseph Chamberlain died in July 1914, weeks before a catastrophic World War broke out. His death marked the end of an era. He had dominated Birmingham and British politics. It was the end of Chamberlain occupation of Highbury. Mary remarried; Hilda and Ida moved to Odiham, Beatrice to London, and the house was given over to recuperating soldiers.

Find out more: R. Ward: The Chamberlains – Joseph, Austen and Neville 1836–1940

A Chip Off the Old Block

While Austen served in Asquith’s wartime coalition government, Neville was elected Mayor of Birmingham. Like Joseph, he was active, hard-working, and full of initiative as he recruited troops, organised Midlands’ air defences, rationed fuel, created creches and founded a municipal bank.

Find out more:  A. Reekes More than Munich – The Forgotten Legacy of Neville Chamberlain

Austen Chamberlain & Fickle Fortune

How Joseph would have loved the fulfilment of his ambition for his elder son. In 1922, Austen finally became Leader of the Conservative Party in coalition with Prime Minister Lloyd George. Within months he was summarily rejected by his party for stubbornly supporting a deeply unpopular Prime Minister. Lloyd George (and Austen) fell from power.

Austen Triumphs at Locarno

Brought out of the wilderness by Stanley Baldwin in 1924, Austen was appointed Foreign Secretary. The greatest moment in his career was his diplomatic coup in bringing France and Germany together at Locarno in Switzerland to rehabilitate Germany and secure both against future aggression. Until Hitler’s Rise, this treaty appeared to have brought peace to Western Europe and Austen was knighted by a grateful King.

Find out more: A Reekes Austen Chamberlain and Burden of Expectation

Death & Glory

Austen died shortly before Neville finally fulfilled the Chamberlain dream of becoming Prime Minister. It was just reward for his great achievements as a transformative Minister of Health and an Iron Chancellor who steered Britain from the brink of bankruptcy.

Munich

Neville returned from meeting Hitler in Munich proclaiming ‘Peace with Honour,’ despite agreeing to the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. He was feted, but public opinion soon turned with evidence of Hitler’s violence (Kristallnacht) and lust for conquest (taking Prague in March 1939). Chamberlain’s reputation never recovered from his appeasement policy.

Find out more: D. Faber Munich: the 1938 Appeasement Crisis

Decline & Fall

Neville took Britain to war in September 1939. Failure at Narvik (Norway), then the fall of Belgium and France, prompted a Commons rebellion. Chamberlain was forced to resign in May 1940. An inspiring man of destiny was needed; Winston Churchill emerged as Britain’s leader. Neville stayed on in the War Cabinet but died from cancer in November, the last of the Chamberlain political dynasty.

Find out more: N. Shakespeare: Six Minutes in May