Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain was a British statesman, son of Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 45 years, as Chancellor of the Exchequer (twice) and was briefly Conservative Party leader before serving as Foreign Secretary.
Chamberlain in 1931
Chamberlain caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1899.
Imperial War Cabinet (1917) Austen is in the second row, fourth from the left
With Stresemann (left) and Briand at Locarno
Joseph Chamberlain was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Conservatives. He split both major British parties in the course of his career. He was the father, by different marriages, of Nobel Peace Prize winner Austen Chamberlain and of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Chamberlain's third wife, Mary, by John Singer Sargent, 1902
William Ewart Gladstone, Lord Hartington, and Chamberlain as depicted in Vanity Fair, 6 July 1880
The Gladstone cabinet as depicted in Vanity Fair, 27 November 1883
In 1892, Chamberlain became leader of the Liberal Unionists in the House of Commons, beginning a fruitful relationship with Conservative leader and future Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (right).
