| Description | This series contains correspondence between Ida and Hilda Chamberlain and several members of their extended family, and includes letters from Joseph Chamberlain and Mary Endicott Chamberlain, and one letter from Alice Beale. The largest quantity of correspondence consists of two long sequences of letters from Ida Chamberlain to Mary Endicott Chamberlain, her stepmother and Joseph Chamberlain's third wife, and from Hilda Chamberlain to Dorothy Lloyd, her niece and Neville Chamberlain's daughter. There is also a shorter sequence of letters from Hilda Chamberlain to Hilda Mary Richards, her niece and Ethel Chamberlain's daughter.
The small number of letters from Joseph Chamberlain to Ida and Hilda were principally written during their childhood and adolescence, while he was away from home or when Ida and Hilda were away at school at Allenswood. There are a small number of letters between Ida and Hilda Chamberlain, which all date from the time before Jospeph Chamberlain's serious stroke in 1906 and were written when the sisters were separated for long periods of time. There is a set of letters from Ida to Hilda and Ethel, sent when she was on an extended tour of Egypt in 1889-1890 with other members of the extended Chamberlain and Kenrick families and they were at school at Allenswood. Neville Chamberlain's travel journal (described at NC2/1) provides his detailed account of the same tour. There is also a set of letters between Hilda and Ida during Hilda's tours of Egypt in 1901 and in 1905-1906. See BC/D/3/9 for Hilda's travel journals. Letters from Ida to Hilda during this latter period contain much information about the 1906 general election campaign.
Very few letters from Mary Endicott Chamberlain to Ida and Hilda have survived, though she was clearly a regular correspondent with them. Those letters which are described in this section provide an interesting insight into her experiences during her tour of South Africa with Joseph Chamberlain in 1902-1903. There is also one letter in response to Ida's correspondence in 1941, which reveals Mary's reasons for remaining in London during the blitz, and a letter from Mary to Hilda, sent just after VE Day in 1945 which reflects on the end of the war, and the lives of Neville and Ida.
In contrast, there is a substantial, though incomplete, set of letters from Ida and Hilda, though primarily from Ida, to Mary Endicott Chamberlain, covering the period from 1889, shortly after Mary's marriage to Joseph Chamberlain, to 1943, a few months before Ida's death. There is a concentration of letters covering the 1890s and 1900s and these letters contain much information about Ida's family and social life at Highbury and in London, and about Ida's work with the Children's Country Holidays Fund. There are no letters for the years 1898-1900. Ida's letters to Mary include discussion about her personal feelings, including her concerns about her sister, Ethel, during her illness, and her role in helping to care for her niece, Hilda Mary, after Ethel's death in 1905. There are gaps in the sequence of correspondence 1910-1911 and 1913, and only one letter dated 1912. More letters survive from 1915 onwards, when Ida and Hilda had moved to Odiham in Hampshire, and there is good coverage for the First World War period. There are fewer letters in the sequence for the 1920s and 1930s and no letters survive for 1933, 1935 or 1936.
Ida also reveals to Mary her feelings about the loss of her half-sister, Beatrice, in 1918; her feelings about her father, Joseph Chamberlain and his illness and death; and her feelings about her elderly aunts and uncles. There is a strong focus on family news and Ida's domestic activities, with relatively little detail about her public responsibilities on the District Council or with Women's Institute groups during the 1920s and 1930s, in contrast to her letters to her brother, Neville Chamberlain, during the same period. A large number of letters survive from 1940 and 1941, and these contain detailed descriptions of Ida's experiences living through the early years of the Second World War, including accounts of air raids and a bomb which was dropped near Odiham, the effects of food rationing, and the reactions of Ida and Hilda's elderly lodgers, Miss Fowler and Miss Coward, to the restrictions imposed by the conflict. The letters also contain descriptions of the illness and death of Neville Chamberlain and contain incidental details about the family lives of Neville's daughter, Dorothy, and her young children. There are also glimpses of Mary's life in London and her involvement with her Carnegie relatives [Mary had married William Carnegie in 1916 who had five daughters].
The second substantial set of correspondence consists of letters to Dorothy, Neville Chamberlain's daughter, who had married Stephen Lloyd in 1935. These letters are primarily from Hilda, though there are a few letters to Dorothy from Ida before her death. These letters give a valuable insight into the period of Ida and Hilda's lives after Neville Chamberlain's death and the end of the weekly 'diary' letters that the siblings sent each other. They can be used in conjunction with Ida's letters to Mary up to Ida's death in 1943, and then Hilda's letters to Dorothy continue until 1957 and comprise a fairly comprehensive sequence for the Second World War years and the late 1940s. More intermittent correspondence survives after 1949; there are some letters from 1951 and 1952, and a couple of letters dated 1957. Hilda's affection for Dorothy is strongly expressed in these letters. She evidently saw her as a surrogate daughter, and a confidante after Neville's death, and the letters show her care and concern for Dorothy and her family. Letters written during the 1940s cover the period when Dorothy had young children and was living in rural Worcestershire during the Second World War, and her move to Birmingham towards the end of the war. There is much information about domestic concerns, including problems recruiting and retaining domestic staff; advice about gardening and growing fruit and vegetables; and accounts of Hilda's public work with the National Federation of Women's Institutes, the County Nursing Association, and her other responsibilities, including her decision to donate land to provide a playground, tennis courts and a public garden in Odiham. The letters contain much detail about Hilda's life in Odiham, and also provide an insight into Dorothy's family life and public service work. The letters also provide news about Austen Chamberlain's family, particularly his daughter, Diane, and her young children, and in later years it is clear that Hilda became close to Diane, who visited her regularly and who provided support for her as she got older. Letters from the 1939-1945 period contain comment on the progress of the Second World War, and letters written during the period immediately after the end of the war in 1945 include Hilda's reflections about the changing world in the post-war period, the Labour election victory and government policy to nationalise industries and to provide a National Health Service. Hilda also expresses her concerns about the emergence of America and Russia as super powers, and her worries about the future of the world in the early years of the Cold War. The letters also contain some reminiscences about Neville Chamberlain, and evidence of Hilda's efforts to rehabilitate his reputation in the 1940s and 1950s. There are details about Keith Feiling's biography, published in 1946, but also about other books and articles written about the period leading up to the outbreak of war in 1939, and the beginnings of a reassessment of the policy of appeasement. The correspondence reveals Hilda's feelings about the loss of Neville and Ida, her thoughts about growing older, and the comfort she gained from her long-serving domestic staff, and from her nieces and nephews.
The shorter and more sporadic sequence of correspondence from Hilda to her niece, Hilda Mary Richards, daughter of Ethel Chamberlain, display similar themes. These letters date from the 1950s and early 1960s, and display Hilda's affection for Hilda Mary and her concern for her following the death of her husband after a late and short marriage. There are also some details about Hilda Mary's interests and domestic activities, and information about Hilda's continued activities and her contact with her family, despite her increasing age
Taken together, the correspondence in this section covers a period of over eighty years, and is chiefly concerned with Ida and Hilda's personal and family lives and relationships, though their public work and local, national and international politics are also discussed, especially where family members were protagonists |