Arthur Neville Chamberlain was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.
Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1921
Joseph Chamberlain (seated) and Austen Chamberlain, 1892
Chamberlain as Lord Mayor of Birmingham in May 1916, alongside Prime Minister Billy Hughes of Australia
Portrait by William Orpen, 1929
Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)
The leader of the Conservative Party is the highest position within the United Kingdom's Conservative Party. The current holder of the position is Rishi Sunak, who was elected to the position on 24 October 2022, following his unopposed victory in the party's leadership election.
Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)
Image: Robert Peel by RR Scanlan detail
Image: Edward Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (cropped)
Image: Disraeli