Neville Chamberlain was the British prime minister whose name became permanently linked with the policy of appeasement and the failed effort to avoid war with Nazi Germany. Born in Birmingham into a famous political family — his father Joseph and half-brother Austen were both leading statesmen — he made his early career in business and in the civic life of his home city, serving as its lord mayor before entering national politics relatively late.
A capable and energetic administrator, Chamberlain rose through a series of senior posts, distinguishing himself as an effective reformer at the Ministry of Health and as chancellor of the exchequer. In 1937 he became prime minister, inheriting a Europe darkening under the shadow of Adolf Hitler's aggression.
Determined to preserve peace and convinced that another great war must be avoided at almost any cost, Chamberlain pursued a policy of appeasement toward Hitler. Its climax came at the Munich Conference of 1938, where he agreed to Germany's annexation of part of Czechoslovakia and returned home declaring that he had secured "peace for our time" — a claim that would soon ring hollow.
When Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia and then invaded Poland in 1939, Chamberlain was forced to declare war, the policy of appeasement in ruins. His leadership in the early months of the conflict was widely judged feeble, and after military failure he resigned in May 1940, making way for Winston Churchill. Already gravely ill, he died a few months later.