Rise of Neville Chamberlain a half years as Chancellor, directing Britain's financial policies as the nation emerged from the Depression. When Baldwin (who had replaced MacDonald as Prime Minister in 1935) retired in 1937, Chamberlain succeeded him. Chamberlain was born in a house called Southbourne, in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham, England, as the only son of the second marriage of Joseph Chamberlain, who later became Mayor of Birmingham, and who also served as a Cabinet minister. Joseph Chamberlain had fathered two children by his first marriage, Beatrice and Austen. Joseph's first wife, Harriet, died giving birth to Austen; Neville's mother, the former Florence
Geoffrey de Neville Geoffrey de Neville Geoffrey de Neville (c.1225) was a 12th-13th century English nobleman who served as King's Chamberlain and Seneschal of Gascony and Périgord. Neville was a younger son of Alan de Neville and a daughter of the lord of Pont Audemer. Neville is first mentioned when King John of England gave him lands in 1204. In 1207, Geoffrey served briefly as a steward of the Household, before he was appointed the King's Chamberlain. He served in 1207 for a short time as Sheriff of Wiltshire and in 1210 he was sent with reinforcements to the Angevin County of Poitou.