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
Neville Bowles Chamberlain Madras Legislative Council and, for several months, acting military member of the council of the Governor-General of India. He left India in February 1881 and retired to Lordswood near Southampton in February 1886. In retirement Chamberlain was an active member of the Southampton Unitarian Church. He was promoted to field marshal on 25 April 1900, died at Lordswood on the 18 February 1902 and was buried at Rownhams near Southampton. In 1873 Chamberlain married Charlotte Cuyler Reid, daughter of Major-General Sir William Reid, who died in 1896; there were no children. Neville Bowles Chamberlain Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain