Chamberlain The Right Hon Joseph

Chamberlain, The Right Hon. Joseph, was born in 1836 in London. Educated at University College school, he thereafter entered the firm of Nettlefold, Birmingham, screw makers, retiring from business in 1874, the year in which he unsuccessfully opposed Mr. Roebuck at Sheffield. Two years later he was returned to Parliament for Birmingham (in the municipal politics of which town he had long taken a prominent part), and making an early impression, he was appointed President of the Board of Trade by Mr. Gladstone in 1880. He was long the reputed leader of the advanced wing of the Liberal party, and his attacks on the landed interest, together with the "unauthorised programme" of the Liberal party, which was generally believed to represent his views, and was issued just before the 1885 election, produced a considerable sensation. When Mr. Gladstone returned to office in 1886 he received the Presidency of the Local Government Board, which he resigned on Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule measures becoming known, and followed Lord Hartington into the Liberal Unionist party. In 1895 he became Secretary for the Colonies in Lord Salisbury's Ministry, and played a prominent part in the proceedings which followed Jameson's celebrated raid.