Chamberlain war ministry

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:More citations needed Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox government cabinet Neville Chamberlain formed the Chamberlain war ministry in 1939 after declaring war on Germany. Chamberlain led the country for the first eight months of the Second World War, until the Norway Debate in Parliament led Chamberlain to resign and Winston Churchill to form a new ministry.

History

Template:Further On 3 September 1939, Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, reconstructed his existing government so as to be suited for the Second World War. The most dramatic change to the ministerial line-up saw the return of Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty. Other changes included Lord Caldecote replacing Lord Maugham as Lord Chancellor, Sir John Anderson replacing Sir Samuel Hoare as Home Secretary (Hoare became Lord Privy Seal with a wide-ranging brief) and the return of Anthony Eden to the government as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs. However, the administration was not a true national unity government as it was made up primarily of Conservatives with support from some National Labour and National Liberal members. There were no representatives from the Labour Party or Liberal Party<ref>Liberal MP Gwilym Lloyd George accepted the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. He doesn't appeared to have officially resigned from the party or was expelled at this time.</ref>

The government was notable for having a small war cabinet consisting of only the principal and service ministers, with most other government positions serving outside the Cabinet. The War Cabinet included Chamberlain, Hoare, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon, Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, Churchill, Secretary of State for Air Sir Kingsley Wood, Minister for Coordination of Defence Lord Chatfield, Lord Hankey (as Minister without Portfolio), and Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha. Oliver Stanley replaced Hore-Belisha in January 1940 while Chatfield left the war cabinet in April 1940.

The government ended on 10 May 1940 when Chamberlain resigned and was succeeded by Churchill who formed the War Coalition.

Cabinet

War Cabinet, September 1939 – May 1940

File:British-war-cabinet-1939-40-churchill-chamberlain.jpg

Chamberlain's War Cabinet in September 1939. From left to right: Standing: Wood, Churchill, Hore-Belisha, and Hankey. Front row: Halifax, Simon, Chamberlain, Hoare, and Chatfield.

Upon the outbreak of the war, Chamberlain carried out a fullscale reconstruction of the government and introduced a small War Cabinet who were as follows:

• Neville Chamberlain – Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
• Sir Samuel Hoare – Lord Privy Seal
• Sir John Simon – Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Lord Halifax – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Leslie Hore-Belisha – Secretary of State for War
• Sir Kingsley Wood – Secretary of State for Air
• Winston Churchill – First Lord of the Admiralty
• Lord Chatfield – Minister for Coordination of Defence
• Lord Hankey – Minister without Portfolio

Changes

• January 1940 – Oliver Stanley succeeds Leslie Hore-Belisha as Secretary of State for War.
• April 1940 – Hoare swaps Lord Privy Seal with Wood for Secretary of State for Air. Lord Chatfield leaves the government and the office of Minister for Coordination of Defence is abolished.

Key office holders not in the Cabinet

• Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote – Lord Chancellor
• James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope – Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
• Sir John Anderson – Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Malcolm MacDonald – Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Anthony Eden – Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
• Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland – Secretary of State for India and Burma
• John Colville – Secretary of State for Scotland
• Oliver Stanley – President of the Board of Trade
• Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr – President of the Board of Education
• Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith – Minister of Agriculture
• Ernest Brown – Minister of Labour and National Service
• Walter Elliot – Minister of Health
• Euan Wallace – Minister of Transport
• Leslie Burgin – Minister of Supply
• William Shepherd Morrison – Minister of Food and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Herwald Ramsbotham – First Commissioner of Works
• Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan – Minister of Information
• Ronald Cross – Minister of Economic Warfare
• Sir Walter Womersley – Minister of Pensions
• George Tryon – Postmaster General
• Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton – Paymaster General
• Sir Donald Somervell – Attorney General
• Sir Terence O'Connor – Solicitor General
• David Margesson – Chief Whip

Changes

• October 1939 – The position of Minister of Shipping is created, with Sir John Gilmour the first holder.
• November 1939 – Lord Winterton resigns as Paymaster General and no successor is appointed.
• January 1940 – Oliver Stanley becomes Secretary of State for War and a member of the War Cabinet in succession to Leslie Hore-Belisha (resigned) (see above) and is succeeded as President of the Board of Trade by Andrew Duncan. Lord Macmillan resigns as Minister of Information and is succeeded by Sir John Reith.
• April 1940 – Robert Hudson succeeds Sir John Gilmour (deceased) as Minister of Shipping. Lord De La Warr exchanges President of the Board of Education with Herwald Ramsbotham for First Commissioner of Works. William Shepherd Morrison swaps the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for the Postmaster General with George Tryon and is succeeded as Minister of Food by Lord Woolton.
• May 1940 – Sir Terence O'Connor dies and no new Solicitor General is appointed before the government falls.

List of ministers

Members of the Cabinet are in bold face.

Office	Name	Party		Dates	Notes
Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Leader of the House of Commons	Neville Chamberlain	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939 – 10 May 1940	Member of the War Cabinet
Lord Chancellor	Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939
Lord President of the Council Leader of the House of Lords	James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939
Lord Privy Seal	Sir Samuel Hoare, 2nd Baronet	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet
	Sir Kingsley Wood	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 April 1940
Chancellor of the Exchequer	Sir John Simon	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury	David Margesson	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Financial Secretary to the Treasury	Harry Crookshank	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Lords of the Treasury	James Stuart	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
	Thomas Dugdale	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 12 February 1940
	Patrick Munro	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
	Stephen Furness	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
	Sir James Edmondson	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 13 November 1939
	Patrick Buchan-Hepburn	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	13 November 1939 – 10 May 1940
	William Boulton	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	12 February 1940 – 10 May 1940
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs	Edward Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs	R. A. Butler	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
Secretary of State for the Home Department	Sir John Anderson	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National	3 September 1939
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department	Osbert Peake	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security	Alan Lennox-Boyd	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	6 September 1939
	William Mabane	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	24 October 1939
First Lord of the Admiralty	Winston Churchill	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty	Geoffrey Shakespeare	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939
	Sir Victor Warrender, 8th Baronet	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 April 1940
Civil Lord of the Admiralty	Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries	Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries	George Bowyer, 1st Baron Denham	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	19 September 1939
Secretary of State for Air	Sir Kingsley Wood	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet
	Sir Samuel Hoare, 2nd Baronet	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 April 1940	Member of the War Cabinet
Under-Secretary of State for Air	Harold Balfour	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Secretary of State for the Colonies	Malcolm MacDonald	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National Labour	September 1939
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies	Basil Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Minister for Coordination of Defence	Ernle Chatfield, 1st Baron Chatfield	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Independent	September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet until 3 April 1940; Office abolished 3 April 1940
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs	Anthony Eden	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939
Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs	Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Minister for Economic Warfare	Ronald Cross	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 September 1939
President of the Board of Education	Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National Labour	September 1939
	Herwald Ramsbotham	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 April 1940
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education	Kenneth Lindsay	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National Labour	September 1939
Minister of Food	William Morrison	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	4 September 1939	Combined with the Duchy of Lancaster
	Frederick Marquis, 1st Baron Woolton	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 April 1940
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food	Alan Lennox-Boyd	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	11 October 1939
Minister of Health	Walter Elliot	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health	Florence Horsbrugh	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Secretary of State for India and Burma	Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Under-Secretary of State for India and Burma	Sir Hugh O'Neill	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Ulster Unionist	11 September 1939
Minister of Information	Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	4 September 1939
	Sir John Reith	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National	5 January 1940
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information	Sir Edward Grigg	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	19 September 1939	Office vacant 3 April 1940
Minister of Labour and National Service	Ernest Brown	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	3 September 1939
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service	Ralph Assheton	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	6 September 1939
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	William Morrison	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939	From 4 September 1939 – 3 April 1940 combined with Minister for Food
	George Tryon	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	3 April 1940	Lord Tryon
Paymaster General	Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
	Vacant			November 1939
Minister of Pensions	Sir Walter Womersley	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
Minister without Portfolio	Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Independent	3 September 1939 – 10 May 1940	Member of the War Cabinet
Postmaster-General	George Tryon	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
	William Morrison	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	3 April 1940
Assistant Postmaster-General	William Mabane	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939
	Charles Waterhouse	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	24 October 1939
Secretary of State for Scotland	John Colville	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland	John McEwen	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	6 September 1939
Minister of Shipping	Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	13 October 1939
	Robert Hudson	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	3 April 1940
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping	Sir Arthur Salter	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	13 November 1939
Minister of Supply	Leslie Burgin	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply	John Llewellin	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
President of the Board of Trade	Oliver Stanley	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
	Sir Andrew Duncan	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National	5 January 1940
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade	Gwilym Lloyd George	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Independent Liberal	6 September 1939
Secretary for Overseas Trade	Robert Hudson	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
	Geoffrey Shakespeare	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	3 April 1940
Secretary for Mines	Geoffrey Lloyd	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
Minister of Transport	Euan Wallace	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	September 1939
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport	Robert Bernays	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939
Secretary of State for War	Leslie Hore-Belisha	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939	Member of the War Cabinet
	Oliver Stanley	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative Party	5 January 1940	Member of the War Cabinet
Under-Secretary of State for War	John Lyttelton, 9th Viscount Cobham	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	19 September 1939
Financial Secretary to the War Office	Sir Victor Warrender, 8th Baronet	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
	Sir Edward Grigg	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	3 April 1940
First Commissioner of Works	Herwald Ramsbotham	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
	Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr	style="background: Template:Party color" |	National Labour	3 April 1940
Attorney General	Sir Donald Somervell	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Solicitor General	Sir Terence O'Connor	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Lord Advocate	Thomas Cooper	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Solicitor General for Scotland	James Reid	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Treasurer of the Household	Charles Waterhouse	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
	Robert Grimston	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	12 November 1939
Comptroller of the Household	Charles Kerr	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Liberal National	September 1939
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household	Robert Grimston	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
	Sir James Edmondson	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	12 November 1939
Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms	George Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard	Arthur Chichester, 4th Baron Templemore	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939
Lords-in-Waiting	Hugh Fortescue, 5th Earl Fortescue	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
	Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
	Rowland Hood, 3rd Viscount Bridport	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940
	Robert Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury	style="background: Template:Party color" |	Conservative	September 1939 – 10 May 1940

References

• D. Butler and G. Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000.