View source for Austen Chamberlain

{{Short description|British politician (1863–1937)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Sir Austen Chamberlain
| honorific-suffix    = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KG}}
| image               = Austen Chamberlain MP.jpg
| caption             = Chamberlain in 1931
| order1              = [[First Lord of the Admiralty]]
| term_start1         = 24 August 1931
| term_end1           = 5 November 1931
| primeminister1      = [[Ramsay MacDonald]]
| predecessor1        = [[A. V. Alexander]]
| successor1          = Sir [[Bolton Eyres-Monsell]]
| order2              = [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]]
| term_start2         = 3 November 1924
| term_end2           = 4 June 1929
| primeminister2      = [[Stanley Baldwin]]
| predecessor2        = Ramsay MacDonald
| successor2          = [[Arthur Henderson]]
| order3              = [[Lord Privy Seal]]<br />[[Leader of the House of Commons]]
| term_start3         = 1 April 1921
| term_end3           = 23 October 1922
| primeminister3      = [[David Lloyd George]]
| predecessor3        = [[Bonar Law]]
| successor3          = [[Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood|Robert Cecil]]
| order4              = [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]
| term_start4         = 9 October 1903
| term_end4           = 4 December 1905
| primeminister4      = [[Arthur Balfour]]
| predecessor4        = [[Charles Thomson Ritchie]]
| successor4          = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| term_start5         = 10 January 1919
| term_end5           = 1 April 1921
| primeminister5      = David Lloyd George
| predecessor5        = [[Bonar Law]]
| successor5          = Sir [[Robert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan|Robert Horne]]
| order6              = [[Secretary of State for India]]
| term_start6         = 25 May 1915
| term_end6           = 17 July 1917
| primeminister6      = {{unbulleted list|H. H. Asquith|David Lloyd George}}
| predecessor6        = [[Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe]]
| successor6          = [[Edwin Montagu]]
| order7              = [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]
| term_start7         = 11 August 1902
| term_end7           = 9 October 1903
| primeminister7      = Arthur Balfour
| predecessor7        = [[Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry]]
| successor7          = [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Lord Stanley]]
| order8              = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br>for [[Birmingham West (UK Parliament constituency)|Birmingham West]]
| term_start8         = 14 July 1914
| term_end8           = 16 March 1937
| predecessor8        = [[Joseph Chamberlain]]
| successor8          = [[Walter Higgs]]
| order9              = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br>for [[East Worcestershire]]
| term_start9         = 30 March 1892
| term_end9           = 7 July 1914
| predecessor9        = [[George Hastings (East Worcestershire MP)|George Hastings]]
| successor9          = [[Leverton Harris]]
| birth_name          = Joseph Austen Chamberlain
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1863|10|16}}
| birth_place         = [[Birmingham]], England
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1937|03|16|1863|10|16}}
| death_place         = [[London]], England
| party               = [[Liberal Unionist]]<br />[[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-foreign-secretaries/austen-chamberlain|title=History of Sir Austen Chamberlain – GOV.UK|access-date=3 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516144230/https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-foreign-secretaries/austen-chamberlain|archive-date=16 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
| nationality         = British
| spouse              = {{marriage|Ivy Muriel Dundas|1906}}
| children            = 3
| parents             = [[Joseph Chamberlain]]<br />Harriet Kenrick
| education           = [[Rugby School]]
| alma_mater          = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]<br />[[Sciences Po]]<br />[[University of Berlin]]
| signature           = Austen Chamberlain Signature.svg
}}
[[File:Shield of Arms of Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG.png|thumb|Garter-encircled shield of Arms of Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG]]
'''Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain''' {{postnominals|country=UK|size=100%|KG}} (16 October 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a British statesman, son of [[Joseph Chamberlain]] and older half-brother of Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]]. He served as a [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for 45 years, as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] (twice) and was briefly [[Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party leader]] before serving as [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]].

Brought up to be the political heir of his father, whom he physically resembled, he was elected to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] as a [[Liberal Unionist]] at a by-election in 1892. He held office in the [[Unionist government, 1895–1905|Unionist coalition governments]] of 1895–1905, remaining in the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1903–05) after his father resigned in 1903 to campaign for [[Tariff Reform]]. After his father's disabling stroke in 1906, Austen became the leading tariff reformer in the House of Commons. Late in 1911 he and [[Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long|Walter Long]] were due to compete for the leadership of the Conservative Party (in succession to [[Arthur Balfour]]), but both withdrew in favour of [[Bonar Law]] rather than risk a party split on a close result.

Chamberlain returned to office in [[H. H. Asquith]]'s wartime [[Asquith coalition ministry|coalition government]] in May 1915, as [[Secretary of State for India]], but resigned to take responsibility for the disastrous [[Siege of Kut|Kut Campaign]]. He again returned to office in [[David Lloyd George]]'s [[Lloyd George ministry|coalition government]], once again serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He then served as Conservative Party leader in the Commons (1921–1922), before resigning after the [[Carlton Club meeting]] voted to end the Lloyd George Coalition.

Like many leading coalitionists, he did not hold office in the [[Conservative government, 1922–1924|Conservative governments of 1922–1924]]. By now regarded as an elder statesman, he served an important term as Foreign Secretary in [[Stanley Baldwin]]'s [[Second Baldwin ministry|second government]] (1924–1929). He negotiated the [[Locarno Treaties]] (1925), aimed at preventing war between [[Interwar France|France]] and [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], for which he was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]]. Chamberlain last held office as [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] in 1931. He was one of the few MPs supporting [[Winston Churchill]]'s appeals for rearmament against the German threat in the 1930s and remained an active backbench MP until his death in 1937.

== Early life ==
Austen Chamberlain was born in [[Birmingham]], the second child and eldest son of [[Joseph Chamberlain]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-101358|title=Chamberlain, Beatrice Mary (1862–1918), educationist and political organizer {{!}} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2013|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/101358|access-date=2019-06-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620090943/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-101358|archive-date=20 June 2019|url-status=live|last1=Marsh|first1=Peter T.}}</ref> then a rising industrialist and political [[radicalism (historical)|radical]], later [[Mayor]] of Birmingham and a dominant figure in [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Unionist]] politics at the end of the 19th century. His father and mother, the former Harriet Kenrick had a baby daughter [[Beatrice Chamberlain]] who would become an educationalist. Harriet [[Maternal death|died giving birth]] to Austen,<ref name=":0" /> leaving his father so shaken that for almost 25 years he maintained a distance from his first-born son. In 1868, his father married Harriet's cousin, Florence, and had further children, the oldest of whom, [[Neville Chamberlain|Neville]], would become [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] in the year of Austen's death.

Austen was dominated by his elder sister and was therefore sent away to be educated first at [[Rugby School]] "to release him from her thrall",<ref name=":0" /> before passing on to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=CHMN882JA|name=Chamberlain, Joseph Austen}}</ref> While at Trinity College, he became a lifelong friend of [[F. S. Oliver]], a future advocate of [[Imperial Federation]] and, after 1909, a prominent member of the [[Round Table movement]]. Chamberlain made his first political address in 1884 at a meeting of the university's Political Society and was vice-president of the [[Cambridge Union]].

It would seem that from an early age his father had intended for politics to be Austen's future path, and with that in mind, he was sent first to France, where he studied at the [[Paris Institute of Political Studies]] and developed a lasting admiration for the French people and culture. For nine months, he was shown the brilliance of [[Paris]] under the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]], and he met and dined with the likes of [[Georges Clemenceau]] and [[Alexandre Ribot]].

From Paris, Austen was sent to [[Berlin]] for twelve months, to imbibe the political culture of the other great European power, Germany. Though in his letters home to Beatrice and Neville, he showed an obvious preference for France and the lifestyle he had left behind there, Chamberlain undertook to learn German and learn from his experience in the capital of the [[German Empire]]. Among others, Austen met and dined with the "Iron Chancellor", [[Otto von Bismarck]], an experience that was to hold a special place in his heart for the duration of his life.

While attending the [[University of Berlin]], Austen developed a suspicion of the growing nationalism in Germany based upon his experience of the lecturing style of [[Heinrich von Treitschke]], who opened up to him "a new side of the German character – a narrow-minded, proud, intolerant [[Prussia]]n chauvinism", the consequences of which he was later to ponder during the First World War and the crises of the 1930s.

== Early career ==
=== Member of Parliament ===
Austen returned to England in 1888, lured largely by the prize of a parliamentary constituency. He was first elected to parliament as a member of his father's own [[Liberal Unionist Party]] in 1892, sitting for the seat of [[East Worcestershire]]. Owing to the prominence of his father and the alliance between the anti-[[Irish Home Rule|Home Rule]] Liberal Unionists and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]], Chamberlain was returned unopposed on 30 March, and at the first sitting of the new session, he walked up the floor of the house flanked by his father and his uncle, [[Richard Chamberlain (MP for Islington West)|Richard]].

Owing to the [[Dissolution of the Parliament of the United Kingdom|dissolution of parliament]] and the [[1892 United Kingdom general election|1892 general election]] that August, Chamberlain was unable to make his maiden speech until April 1893, but, when delivered, it was acclaimed by the four-time prime minister [[William Ewart Gladstone]] as "one of the best speeches which has been made". That Chamberlain was speaking against Gladstone's own [[Second Home Rule Bill]] does not seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of the Prime Minister, who responded by publicly congratulating both Austen and his father, Joseph, on such an excellent performance. That was highly significant, given the bad blood existing between Joseph Chamberlain and his former leader.

===Political office===
[[File:Joseph Austen Chamberlain, Vanity Fair, 1899-08-03.jpg|right|thumb|Chamberlain caricatured by [[Leslie Ward|Spy]] for ''[[Vanity Fair (UK magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1899.]]
Appointed a junior Whip of the Liberal Unionists after the general election, Austen's main role was to act as his father's "standard bearer" in matters of policy. Following the Conservative and Unionist landslide win in the [[1895 United Kingdom general election|election of 1895]], Chamberlain was appointed [[Civil Lord of the Admiralty]], holding that post until 1900, when he became [[Financial Secretary to the Treasury]]. [[Lord Salisbury]] retired as prime minister in July 1902, and the following month Chamberlain was promoted to the position of [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]] by the new premier, the Conservative [[Arthur Balfour]], who also designated this a cabinet position,<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Mr Balfour's Ministry – full list of appointments |date=9 August 1902 |page=5 |issue=36842}}</ref> and appointed him to the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27464 |date=12 August 1902 |page=5174 }}</ref>

In the wake of the struggle between his father and Balfour, Austen Chamberlain became [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] in 1903. Austen's appointment was largely a compromise solution to the bitter division of the two Unionist heavyweights, which threatened to split the coalition between supporters of Chamberlain's [[Tariff Reform League|Imperial Tariff campaign]] and Balfour's more cautious advocacy of protectionism. While Austen supported his father's programme, his influence within the cabinet was diminished following the departure of the senior Chamberlain to the [[backbenches]]. Facing a resurgent [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] opposition and the threat of an internal party split, Balfour eventually took the Unionists into opposition in December 1905, and in the ensuing rout in the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|election of 1906]], Austen found himself one of the few surviving Liberal Unionists in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]].

After his father's stroke and enforced retirement from active politics a few months later, Austen became the effective leader of the tariff reform campaign within the Unionist Party, and thus, he was a contender for the eventual leadership of the party itself.

== Leadership questions ==
With the Unionists in disarray after electoral defeats at both the [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January]] and [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|December 1910]] elections, Balfour was forced from his position as party leader in November 1911. Chamberlain was one of the leading candidates to succeed as Conservative leader even though he was still technically a member of the Liberal Unionist wing of the coalition (the two parties merged formally only in 1912).

Chamberlain was opposed by Canadian-born [[Bonar Law]], [[Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long|Walter Long]] and Irish Unionist [[Edward Carson]].

Given their standing in the party, only Chamberlain and Long had a realistic chance of success and though Balfour had intended Chamberlain to succeed him, it became clear from an early canvass of the sitting MPs that Long would be elected by a slender margin.

After a short period of internal party campaigning, Chamberlain determined to withdraw from the contest for the good of the still-divided party. He succeeded in persuading Long to withdraw with him in favour of Law, who was subsequently chosen by unanimous vote as a compromise candidate.

Chamberlain's action, while it prevented him from attaining the party leadership and, arguably, the premiership, did a great deal to maintain unity within the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties at a time of great uncertainty and strain.

==Irish Home Rule==
[[File:Sir (Joseph) Austen Chamberlain.jpg|thumb|Sir Austen Chamberlain, 1908–12, by [[Henry Walter Barnett]]]]

In the last years before the outbreak of [[World War I]], Chamberlain was concerned with one issue above all others: [[Home Rule]] for Ireland. The issue that had prompted his father to leave the Liberal Party in the 1880s now threatened to spill over into outright civil war, with the government of [[H. H. Asquith]] committed to the passage of a [[Third Home Rule Bill]]. Chamberlain was resolutely opposed to the dissolution of the Union with Ireland. To the strain then was added the death of his father in July 1914, only a few days after the assassination of [[Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria]], which began the train of events that led to the war.

==First World War==
[[File:Imperial War Cabinet.jpg|thumb|Imperial War Cabinet (1917) Austen is in the second row, fourth from the left]]

Pressure from the Conservative opposition, in part led by Chamberlain, eventually resulted in the formation of the wartime [[Asquith coalition|coalition government]], in 1915. Chamberlain joined the cabinet as [[Secretary of State for India]]. Like other politicians, including [[Arthur Balfour]] and [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|George Curzon]], Chamberlain supported the [[Mesopotamian campaign|invasion of Mesopotamia]] to increase British prestige in the region, thus discouraging a German-inspired Muslim revolt in India.<ref>Woodward, David R, "Field Marshal Sir William Robertson", Westport Connecticut & London: Praeger, 1998, {{ISBN|0-275-95422-6}}, pp&nbsp;113,&nbsp;118–9</ref>

Chamberlain remained at the [[India Office]] after [[David Lloyd George]] succeeded Asquith as prime minister in late 1916, but following the [[Special Commissions (Dardanelles and Mesopotamia) Act 1916|Inquiry]] into the failure of the Mesopotamian campaign (undertaken by the separately-administered [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]]) in 1915, including the loss of the British garrison during the [[Siege of Kut]], Chamberlain resigned his post in July 1917; as the minister ultimately responsible, the fault lay with him. He was widely acclaimed for such a principled act.<ref>{{cite news | date=13 July 1917 | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/13/96255257.pdf | title=Chamberlain out of India Office | newspaper=The New York Times | access-date =20 January 2008 }}</ref>

After Lloyd George's Paris speech (12 November 1917) at which he said that "when he saw the appalling casualty lists he wish(ed) it had not been necessary to win so many ["victories"]" there was talk of Chamberlain withdrawing support from the government. Lloyd George survived by claiming that the aim of the new inter-Allied [[Supreme War Council]] was purely to "coordinate" policy, not to overrule the British generals, who still enjoyed a good deal of support from Conservatives.<ref>Woodward, David R, "Field Marshal Sir William Robertson", Westport Connecticut & London: Praeger, 1998, {{ISBN|0-275-95422-6}}, pp. 192–4</ref>

Later, he returned to government and became a member of the [[War Cabinet]] in April 1918 as [[Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom)|Minister without Portfolio]], replacing [[Lord Milner]], who had become [[Secretary of State for War]].

Following the victory of the [[Lloyd George coalition]] in the [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918 general election]], Chamberlain was again appointed to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in January 1919 and immediately faced the huge task of restoring Britain's finances after four years of wartime expenditure.

== Leadership ==
Citing ill health, Law retired from the leadership of the Conservative branch of the Lloyd George government in the spring of 1921. His seniority and the general dislike of Curzon, his counterpart in the [[House of Lords]], helped Chamberlain to both succeed Law as Leader of the House of Commons and take over in the office of [[Lord Privy Seal]]. He was succeeded at the Exchequer by Sir [[Robert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan|Robert Horne]]; it seemed that after ten years of waiting, Austen would again be given the opportunity of succeeding to the premiership.

The Lloyd George coalition was beginning to falter, following numerous scandals and the unsuccessful conclusion of the [[Anglo-Irish War]], and it was widely believed that it would not survive until the next general election. He had previously had little regard for Lloyd George, but the opportunity of working closely with the "Welsh Wizard" gave Chamberlain a new insight into his nominal superior in the government (by now, the Conservative Party was by far the largest partner in the government).

It was an unfortunate change of allegiance for Chamberlain, for by late 1921, the Conservative backbenchers were growing more and more restless for an end to the coalition and a return to single-party (Conservative) government. Conservatives in the House of Lords began, in public, to oppose the coalition, disregarding calls for support from Chamberlain. In the country at large, Conservative candidates began to oppose the coalition at by-elections, and discontent spread to the House of Commons.

In the autumn of 1922, Chamberlain faced a backbench revolt, largely led by [[Stanley Baldwin]], designed to oust Lloyd George, and when he summoned the [[Carlton Club meeting]] 19 October 1922, of Conservative MPs, a motion was passed there for fighting the forthcoming election as an independent party. Chamberlain resigned the party leadership rather than act against what he believed to be his duty. He was succeeded by Law, whose views and intentions he had predicted the evening before the vote at a private meeting. Law formed a government shortly thereafter, but Chamberlain was not given a post, but it seems that he would not have accepted a position even if he had been offered one.

Austen and Neville Chamberlain, [[Iain Duncan Smith]] and [[Liz Truss]] are the only four Conservative leaders not to lead the party into a general election. Until [[William Hague]] (1997–2001), Austen had been the only Conservative overall leader in the history of the party not to become prime minister.

==Foreign Secretary==
=== Appointment ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R03618, Locarno, Gustav Stresemann, Chamberlain, Briand.jpg|thumb|With Stresemann (left) and Briand at Locarno]]
After the second resignation of Law in May 1923 (Law died from throat cancer later that year), Chamberlain was passed over again for the leadership of the party in favour of [[Stanley Baldwin]]. Baldwin offered Chamberlain the post of Lord Privy Seal, but Chamberlain insisted other former ministers from the Coalition to be included as well; Baldwin refused. However, Chamberlain returned to government when Baldwin formed his [[Second Baldwin ministry|second ministry]] following success in the [[1924 United Kingdom general election|election of October 1924]], serving in the important office of [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] from 1924 to 1929. Chamberlain was largely allowed a free hand by the easy-going Baldwin.

It is as Foreign Secretary that Chamberlain's place in history was finally assured. In a difficult period in international relations, Chamberlain faced not only a split in the ''[[entente cordiale]]'' by the French [[occupation of the Ruhr]] but also the controversy over the 1924 [[Geneva Protocol (1924)|Geneva Protocol]], which threatened to dilute British sovereignty over the issue of [[League of Nations]] economic sanctions.

=== Locarno Pact ===
[[File:1930 Austen Chamberlain.jpg|thumb|[[Autochrome Lumière|Autochrome]] portrait by Georges Chevalier, 1930.]]
Despite the importance to history of other pressing issues, his reputation chiefly rests on his part in the negotiations over what came to be known as the [[Locarno Pact]] of 1925. Seeking to maintain the postwar status quo in the West, Chamberlain responded favourably to the approaches of German Foreign Minister [[Gustav Stresemann]] for a British guarantee of [[Weimar Republic|Germany]]'s western borders. Besides promoting Franco-German reconciliation, Chamberlain's main motive was to create a situation in which Germany could pursue territorial revisionism in Eastern Europe peacefully.<ref name="autogenerated38">Stephen Schuker, "The End of Versailles" in ''The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered: A.J.P. Taylor and the Historians'' edited by Gordon Martel (Routledge: 1999) pp. 48–49.</ref>

Chamberlain's understanding was that if Franco-German relations improved, [[Interwar France|France]] would gradually abandon the ''[[Cordon sanitaire (international relations)|cordon sanitaire]]'', the French alliance system in [[Eastern Europe]] between the wars.<ref name="autogenerated38"/> Once France had abandoned its allies in Eastern Europe as the price of better relations with Germany, [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] and [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]] would have no Great Power ally to protect them and would be forced to adjust to German demands. Chamberlain believed that they would peacefully hand over the territories claimed by Germany such as the [[Sudetenland]], the [[Polish Corridor]] and the [[Free City of Danzig]].<ref name="autogenerated38"/> Promoting territorial revisionism in Eastern Europe in Germany's favour was one of Chamberlain's principal reasons for Locarno.

Together with [[Aristide Briand]] of France, Chamberlain and Stresemann met at the town of [[Locarno]] in October 1925 and signed a mutual agreement (together with representatives from [[Belgium]] and [[Fascist Italy|Italy]]) to settle all differences between the nations by arbitration, not war. For his services, Chamberlain was not only awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] but also made a Knight Companion of the [[Order of the Garter]]. He was the first ordinary Knight Companion of the Garter since Elizabethan times (Sir [[Henry Lee (died 1611)|Henry Lee]]) to die without having been made a [[peerage of the United Kingdom|peer]]. He was the [[List of Knights and Ladies of the Garter|871st Knight Companion of the Garter]].

Chamberlain also secured Britain's accession to the [[Kellogg-Briand Pact]], which theoretically outlawed war as an instrument of policy. Chamberlain also said that Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] was "a man with whom business could be done".<ref>{{cite book|author=Gijs Van Hensbergen|title=Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-century Icon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TO5wF6wUfoC&pg=PA92|year=2005|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc|page=92|isbn=9780747568735|access-date=26 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508221921/https://books.google.com/books?id=8TO5wF6wUfoC&pg=PA92|archive-date=8 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Resignation ===
After his less satisfactory engagement in issues in the Far East and Egypt, Chamberlain's tenure as Foreign Secretary ended with the defeat of Baldwin's government at the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|election of 1929]]. He went into retirement.

Chamberlain briefly returned to government in 1931 as [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] in [[Ramsay MacDonald]]'s first [[UK National Government|National Government]] but soon retired later that year after his actions in regards to the [[Invergordon Mutiny]]. Many of the officers at the time state that the mutiny at Invergordon was a direct result of the action of the Admiralty under Chamberlain's leadership who accepted the cuts in pay for the crews as a result of the Government's need to reduce expenditure.<ref name="Bell">{{cite journal | last=Bell | first=Christopher M. | title=The Royal Navy and the Lessons of the Invergordon Mutiny | journal=War in History | volume=12 | issue=1 | date=2005 | issn=0968-3445 | doi=10.1191/0968344505wh312oa | pages=75–92}}</ref> The First Sea Lord [[Frederick Field (Royal Navy officer)|Frederick Field]] was ill at the time of the incident and Chamberlain had proceeded without receiving the advice of the First Sea Lord.<ref name="Ereira">{{cite book | last=Ereira | first=Alan | title=The Invergordon Mutiny | publisher=Routledge | date=2015-10-05 | isbn=978-1-317-40313-5 | page=113}}</ref>

== Later life ==
=== Backbencher ===
Over the next six years as a senior backbencher, he gave strong support to the National Government on domestic issues but was critical on its foreign policy. In 1935, the government faced a parliamentary rebellion over the [[Hoare-Laval Pact]]; his opposition to the vote of censure is widely believed to have been instrumental in saving the government from defeat on the floor of the House.

Chamberlain was again briefly considered in 1935 for the post of Foreign Secretary but was passed over once the [[Abyssinia Crisis]] was over for being too old for the job.<ref>Douglas Hurd, ''Choose Your Weapons: The British Foreign Secretary; 200 Years of Argument, Success and Failure'', Phoenix (2010), pp. 284–5</ref> Instead, his advice was sought as to the suitability of his former [[Parliamentary Private Secretary]], now Minister for the League of Nations, [[Anthony Eden]] for the post.

=== Calls for rearmament ===
From 1934 to 1937, Chamberlain was, with [[Winston Churchill]], [[Roger Keyes]] and [[Leo Amery]], the most prominent voice calling for British rearmament in the face of a growing threat from [[Nazi Germany]].

However, in 1935, Stanley Baldwin's government produced a [[Statement relating to Defence|White Paper]] and announced modest rearmament.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Holroyd-Doveton|first=John|title=Maxim Litvinov: A Biography|publisher=Woodland Publications|year=2013|pages=288}}</ref> Although Baldwin would forever be condemned for his failure to rearm sufficiently, the Labour Party opposed the White Paper. [[Clement Attlee]] said:

<blockquote>We believe in a League system in which the whole world would be ranged against an aggressor. If it is shown that someone is proposing to break the peace, let us bring the whole world opinion against her.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Hansard|volume=299 |date=11 March 1935|pages=40}}</ref></blockquote>

Afterwards Austen Chamberlain fully supported Baldwin and severely criticised Attlee's speech with the words:

<blockquote>If war breaks out, and we become involved in a struggle and if the Honourable Member for [[Limehouse (UK Parliament constituency)|Limehouse]] [Clement Attlee] is sitting on the government benches while London is being bombed, do you think he will hold the language he held today? If he does he will be one of the first victims of the war, for he will be strung up by an angry and justifiably angry populace to the nearest lamp post.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Hansard|volume=299 |date=11 March 1935|pages=77}}</ref></blockquote>

In addition to speaking eloquently in Parliament on the matter, he was the chairman of two [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] parliamentary delegations in late 1936 that met with Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] to remonstrate with him about his government's delay in rearming the British defence forces.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alfred F. Havighurst|title=Britain in Transition: The Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4Tm6VRqZmMC&pg=PA252|year=1985|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=252|isbn=9780226319704|access-date=26 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504220252/https://books.google.com/books?id=h4Tm6VRqZmMC&pg=PA252|archive-date=4 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> More respected than Churchill, Chamberlain became something of an icon to young Conservatives, as the last survivor of Victorian high politics.

=== Death ===
Though he never again served in a government, he survived in good health until March 1937, dying just ten weeks before his younger half-brother, Neville, became the first and only member of the Chamberlain dynasty to become prime minister.

Chamberlain died at the age of 73 in his London home, 24 Egerton Terrace, on 16 March 1937. He is buried in [[East Finchley Cemetery]] in London.

At his death, his estate was valued for probate at £45,044 18/1.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://treaty.nationalarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Chamberlain.pdf |title=D J Dutton, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |access-date=18 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425171024/http://treaty.nationalarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Chamberlain.pdf |archive-date=25 April 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> This was a relatively modest sum for such a famous public figure. Much of his father's fortune had been lost in a failed attempt by his younger brother Neville to grow [[sisal]] in the [[West Indies]] in the early 1890s, and unlike Neville, he never went into business to make money for himself.

His personal and political papers are housed in the Cadbury Research Library at the [[University of Birmingham]].

== Assessments ==
[[Robert Blake, Baron Blake|Robert Blake]] wrote that Austen Chamberlain "for all his talents was only a thin echo of his formidable father, a mere shadow of that extraordinary figure ... Austen Chamberlain was altogether kinder than his father, more likeable, more honourable, more high-minded and less effective ... he lacked that ultimate hardness without which men seldom reach supreme political power". Blake comments that he often missed his chances because he could be persuaded to back off by the suggestion that he was acting for self-seeking reasons, hence Churchill's quip that "he always played the game, and he always lost it".<ref>Blake 1955, pp. 72–3</ref>

David Dutton comments that early assessments of Chamberlain's career compared him unfavourably with his father, who overshadowed his early career, and his brother, who overshadowed his later decades. In his forties, when he was ready to carve out his own identity, he had to act as a surrogate for his disabled father, whom he resembled in appearance (although he was softer and less wiry, both in face and body) and dress (wearing a [[monocle]], and an [[orchid]] in his lapel). Until [[William Hague]] (1997–2001), he was the only Conservative leader of the twentieth century not to become prime minister. Although this is sometimes attributed to character defects, Dutton argues that he was a major figure in his own right, who only narrowly missed becoming prime minister in 1922 or 1923. Dutton quotes with approval [[Leo Amery]]'s verdict written just after Chamberlain's death: 'He just missed greatness and the highest position, but his was a fine life of honourable public service'.<ref name="Dutton 2004, pp. 906–24">Dutton 2004, pp. 906–24</ref>

Chamberlain could speak effectively, but was never a stirring orator. For most of his career he was renowned for rectitude and civic duty. Before the war Chamberlain had been a somewhat reluctant radical, but after 1918 he became more conservative, concerned at the new threat of socialism, and whose dress – he not only wore a monocle and [[frock coat]] but was one of the last MPs to wear a top hat inside the Commons Chamber – made him appear a relic from a previous generation. Dutton suggests that his "exaggerated sense of his own importance and dignity which compounded an already stiff and unbending personal demeanour", came from having to serve under men – Law and Baldwin – whom he regarded as his juniors.<ref name="Dutton 2004, pp. 906–24"/>

== Personal life ==
In 1906, Chamberlain married Ivy Muriel Dundas (died 1941), daughter of Colonel Henry Dundas.<ref>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</ref> She was created a Dame Grand Cross of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (GBE) in 1925. The couple had two sons, Joseph and Lawrence, and a daughter, Diane.

During the 1920s, the Chamberlains lived at a house called Twytt's Ghyll in Fir Toll Road, [[Mayfield and Five Ashes|Mayfield]], [[East Sussex]]. The house was sold in 1929. R.C.G. Foster said, "He kept himself quite aloof from the village and was not popular with his neighbours".{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} He had an interest in [[rock gardening]].<ref name=Mayfield_newsletter>{{cite news|last=Cornish|first=Tim|title=Nobel Peace Prize for Mayfield Man|newspaper=Mayfield and Five Ashes Newsletter|date=January 2012|pages=16–17}}</ref>

== Archives ==
A collection of archival material related to Austen Chamberlain can be found at the Cadbury Research Library, [[University of Birmingham]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=UoB CALMVIEW2: Overview|url=http://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XAC|access-date=2020-12-01|website=calmview.bham.ac.uk}}</ref> A separate collection of letters relating to Austen Chamberlain can also be found there.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UoB CALMVIEW2: Overview|url=https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XACLAdd|access-date=9 December 2010|website=calmview.bham.ac.uk}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of covers of Time magazine (1920s)|List of covers of ''Time'' magazine (1920s)]] (30 November 1925)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources and further reading==

* {{cite journal|last1=Alexander|first1=M.S.|last2=Philpott|first2=W.J.|title=The Entente Cordiale and the Next War: Anglo-French Views on Future Military Cooperation, 1928&nbsp;–1939 | journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=13|number=1|date=1998|pages=53–84|doi=10.1080/02684529808432463}}
*{{cite book|last=Blake|first=Robert|title=The Unknown Prime Minister: The Life and Times of Andrew Bonar Law, 1858–1923|place=London|publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode|date=1955}}
*{{cite book|last=Dutton|first=David|title=Austen Chamberlain: Gentleman in Politics|place=Bolton|publisher=R.Anderson|date=1985}}
*{{cite ODNB|last=Dutton|first=D. J.|title=Chamberlain, Sir (Joseph) Austen (1863–1937)|orig-year=2004|edition=online |date=Jan 2011|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32351|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32351}}
* Dutton, David. "Sir Austen Chamberlain and British Foreign Policy 1931–37." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 16.2 (2005): 281–295.
* Edwards, Peter. "The Austen Chamberlain-Mussolini Meetings." ''The Historical Journal'' 14.1 (1971): 153–164.
* Grayson, Richard. "Austen Chamberlain and the Commitment to Europe: British Foreign Policy, 1924–1929" ''Diplomacy & Statecraft '' 17#4 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1080/09592290600943304
* {{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Gaynor|title=Sir Austen Chamberlain, the Marquess of Crewe and Anglo-French Relations, 1924–1928|journal=Contemporary British History|date=March 2011|volume=25|issue=25#1|page=49&nbsp;–64|doi=10.1080/13619462.2011.546100|s2cid=144595507|url=https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/file/1439719/1/Accepted%20Version}} – argues that Crewe gave Chamberlain key ideas about French security and disarmament policy, the implementation of the Geneva Protocol, the Treaty of Locarno, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
* {{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Gaynor|title=Austen Chamberlain and Britain's Relations with France, 1924–1929|journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft|date=2006|volume=17|issue=17#4|pages=753–769|doi=10.1080/09592290600943304|s2cid=153721391|url=https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/preview/1502426/Austen_Chamberlain_and_Britain%27s_Relations_with_France_in_the_Locarno_era_1924-1929.pdf}}
* {{cite EB1922 |wstitle= Chamberlain, Joseph Austen |last1= Locker-Lampson |first1= Oliver Stillingfleet  }}
* McKercher, B. J. C. "Austen Chamberlain and the continental balance of power: Strategy, stability, and the league of nations, 1924–29." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 14.2 (2003): 207–236.
* McKercher, Brian J. C. "A Sane and Sensible Diplomacy: Austen Chamberlain, Japan, and The Naval Balance of Power in the Pacific Ocean, 1924–29." ''Canadian Journal of History'' 21.2 (1986): 187–214.
* {{cite book|author=[[Charles Petrie (historian)|Petrie, Sir Charles]]|title=The Chamberlain Tradition|publisher=London: Lovat Dickson Limited|date=1938}}
* Tomes, Jason H. "Austen Chamberlain and the Kellogg Pact." ''Millennium'' 18.1 (1989): 1–27.
* Turner, Arthur. "Austen Chamberlain, The Times and the Question of Revision of the Treaty of Versailles in 1933." ''European History Quarterly'' 18.1 (1988): 51–70.
* Zametica, Jovan. "Sir Austen Chamberlain and the Italo-Yugoslav crisis over Albania February–May 1927." ''Balcanica'' 36 (2005): 203–235. [https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/bitstream/id/21168/4340.pdf online]

===Primary sources===
* {{cite book|last=Petrie|first=Sir Charles|title=The Life and Letters of the Right Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain|publisher=London: Cassell & Co.|date=1939–1940}} 2 vols.
* {{cite book|editor-last=Self|editor-first=Robert C.|title=The Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters: The Correspondence of Sir Austen Chamberlain with his Sisters Hilda and [[Ida Chamberlain|Ida]], 1916–1937|publisher=Cambridge: Cambridge University Press|date=1995}}

== External links ==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons category|Austen Chamberlain}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-austen-chamberlain | Austen Chamberlain }}
* {{Nobelprize|name=Sir Austen Chamberlain}}
* {{UK National Archives ID}}

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  | title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[East Worcestershire]]
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  | before = [[George Hastings (East Worcestershire MP)|George Hastings]]
  | after  = [[Frederick Leverton Harris]]
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  | title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Birmingham West (UK Parliament constituency)|Birmingham West]]
  | years  = [[1914 Birmingham West by-election|1914]]–[[1937 Birmingham West by-election|1937]]
  | before = [[Joseph Chamberlain]]
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