(Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), Prime Minister; son of Joseph Chamberlain

Sitter in 41 portraits
Chancellor of the Exchequer and a reforming Minister for Health in successive Conservative governments, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government. He succeeded Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister in 1937. Knowing Britain was unprepared for war, Chamberlain temporised in the face of growing Axis aggression. Meetings with Hitler in September 1938 failed, and although Chamberlain declared the Munich Agreement 'peace in our time', he ordered the acceleration of rearmament. In March 1939 when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain abandoned appeasement and introduced conscription. War was declared on 3 September 1939. Chamberlain resigned after the Allied withdrawal from Norway in 1940.