- Born
- Died
- Birth nameArthur Neville Chamberlain
- Nickname
- The Coroner
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Neville Chamberlain was born on March 18, 1869 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK. He was married to Anne de Vere Cole. He died on November 9, 1940 in Heckfield, Hampshire, England, UK.
- SpouseAnne de Vere Cole(January 5, 1911 - November 9, 1940) (his death, 2 children)
- ParentsFlorence Clara Kenrick
- In 1938 Chamberlain was lauded during his tenure as Prime Minister for keeping Britain out of a war with Germany. However after World War II he was denigrated for appeasement.
- British Conservative Prime Minister (28 May 1937 - 10 May 1940).
- The Munich Agreement is now regarded as a failure because it failed to stop further German aggression. Upon realizing its failure following the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, it was Chamberlain's decision to offer a military alliance to Poland on 25 August 1939 that resulted in World War II. Despite this alliance, the UK was in no position to do anything to help Poland and many of the Nazis' worst atrocities took place in that country over the next six years.
- The term "appeasement" is sometimes considered controversial today, as the UK and France were occupying half the world by force in the 1930s.
- His brother started the urban myth that the Chinese have a saying: "May you live in interesting times".
- The day may come when my much cursed visit to Munich will be understood. Neither we nor the French were prepared for war. I am not responsible for this lack of preparation ... It would be rash to prophesy the verdict of history, but if full access is obtained to all the records it will be seen that I realized from the beginning our military weakness and did my best to postpone if I could not avert the war.
- So far as my personal reputation is concerned, I am not in the least disturbed about it. The letters which I am still receiving in such vast quantities so unanimously dwell on the same point, namely without Munich the war would have been lost and the Empire destroyed in 1938 ... I do not feel the opposite view ... has a chance of survival. Even if nothing further were to be published giving the true inside story of the past two years I should not fear the historian's verdict.
- [on the outbreak of World War II] Everything I have worked for, everything that I have hoped for, everything that I have believed in during my public life, has crashed into ruins.
- In the absence of any powerful ally, and until our armaments are completed, we must adjust our foreign policy to our circumstances, and even bear with patience and good humour actions which we should like to treat in a very different fashion. (January 1938)
- The only thing that matters is to win the war, though we may go bankrupt in the process.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content