Neville Chamberlain March 1869 in a house called Southbourne in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham. He was the only son of the second marriage of Joseph Chamberlain, who later became Mayor of Birmingham and a Cabinet minister. His mother was Florence Kenrick, cousin to William Kenrick MP; she died when he was a small boy. Joseph Chamberlain had had another son, Austen Chamberlain, by his first marriage. Neville Chamberlain was educated at Rugby School. Joseph Chamberlain then sent Neville to Mason College (taking external exams of University of London). Neville Chamberlain had little interest in his studies there, and in 1889 his
Rise of Neville Chamberlain social progress and in the power of government at both the national and local level, to do good." Five years later, Chamberlain biographer Graham Macklin quoted Dutton in noting the eclipse of Chamberlain's earlier accomplishments by his later policy of appeasement: Rise of Neville Chamberlain The early life, business career and political rise of Neville Chamberlain culminated on 28 May 1937, when he was summoned to Buckingham Palace to "kiss hands" and accept the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Chamberlain had long been regarded as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's political heir, and when Baldwin announced his retirement,