Austen Chamberlain
Sir Austen Chamberlain (
1863 -
1937) was a British statesman and politician.
The son of
Birmingham's
Mayor Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of
Neville Chamberlain, Austen was first elected to parliament in
1892. In
1903, he became
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and following his father's stroke and enforced retirement from active politics a few years later, he became the leader of the protectionist wing of the Conservative Party.
In
1911, Chamberlain was one of the leading candidates to succeed
Arthur James Balfour as Conservative leader, but due to a deadlock between protectionists and free traders,
Andrew Bonar Law was chosen as a compromise candidate. In
1915 Chamberlain returned to the cabinet in
Asquith's coalition government, as
Secretary of State for India.
He continued as India Secretary in
Lloyd George's government after
1916 but resigned in
1917. Later he returned to government and became a member of the
War Cabinet in
1918. In
1919, he was again at the Exchequer. In 1921, Bonar Law retired, and Chamberlain succeeded him both as leader of Conservative MPs (but not of the Party as a whole, as is popularly supposed, since that accolade was only given to a Conservative who became Prime Minister) and as
Lord Privy Seal. Unfortunately for Chamberlain, in late
1922 the Conservative backbenchers rebelled against their leadership for remaining in the coalition with Lloyd George, and dumped Chamberlain as their leader, bringing Law back as Prime Minister. Chamberlain is often cited as being the only modern leader of the
Conservative Party not to become Prime Minister until
William Hague and
Iain Duncan Smith, but this is technically inaccurate as he was not overall leader.
Chamberlain did, however, return to government in
Stanley Baldwin's second government, serving in the important office of
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from
1924 to
1929. As Foreign Secretary, Chamberlain negotiated the
Locarno Pact of
1925 with
Gustav Stresemann of
Germany and
Aristide Briand of
France, for which he won the
Nobel Peace Prize, and secured Britain's accession to the
Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war. Chamberlain and his wife were rather sympathetic to fascist Italy, and Chamberlain famously said that
Benito Mussolini was a man with whom business could be done.
In
1931, Sir Austen returned briefly to government as First Lord of the Admiralty in
Ramsay MacDonald's first
National Government, but soon retired from government. Over the next six years as a senior backbencher he gave strong support to the
National Government but was critical of their
foreign policy. In
1935 the government faced a parliamentary rebellion over the Hoare-Laval Pact and Sir Austen believed was asked "to talk about the Foreign Secretaryship" - which he assumed to mean he would be offered the post if he supported the government and it survived. He did indeed support it but afterwards was merely asked his opinion of the suitability of his former
Parliamentary Private Secretary Anthony Eden for the post.
Winston Churchill claims in his memoirs that had this crisis ended differently Sir Austen may have been called upon as a respected statesman to form a government but this view is not widely supported.
\nSir Austen lived until March
1937, dying just ten weeks before his half-brother
Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister.
{| border="2" align="center"\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Charles Thomson Ritchie\n|width="40%" align="center"|
Chancellor of the Exchequer1903-1905\n|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Herbert Henry Asquith\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
The Earl of Crewe\n|width="40%" align="center"|
Secretary of State for India1915-1917\n|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Edwin Samuel Montagu\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Andrew Bonar Law\n|width="40%" align="center"|
Chancellor of the Exchequer1919-1921\n|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Sir Robert Horne\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Andrew Bonar Law\n|width="40%" align="center"|
Leader of the Conservative Party1921-1922\n|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Andrew Bonar Law\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Ramsay Macdonald\n|width="40%" align="center"|
Foreign Secretary1924-1929\n|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Arthur Henderson
|}
Chamberlain, Austen\nChamberlain, Austen\nChamberlain, Austen\nChamberlain, Austen\nChamberlain, Austen
