| Description | Transcripts of correspondence between Neville Chamberlain and Leopold Amery [Amery, Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett (1873-1955), politician and journalist]. Some original correspondence between Anne Chamberlain and Amery and other items relating to the transcripts are also included.
The transcripts were sent by Amery to Anne Chamberlain and include transcripts of both letters from Chamberlain to Amery and letters from Amery to Chamberlain. Some errors in the transcripts of letters from Amery to Chamberlain have been noted by Anne Chamberlain, see NC7/2/12.
Amery was a Liberal Unionist and then a Conservative and Unionist politician following the merger of the parties, and in 1911 became Member of Parliament for Birmingham South, and later became MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook from 1918 to 1940.
His major official positions held were: Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Colonies from 1919 to 1921; Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty from 1921 to 1922; First Lord of the Admiralty from October 1922 to February 1924; Secretary of State for the Colonies from November 1924 to June 1929; Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs from July 1925 to June 1929; Secretary of State for India and for Burma from 1940 to 1945.
He was also a writer, and had been a journalist in his earlier years.
The correspondence between Amery and Chamberlain discusses various political matters including much about tariffs and imperial preference; foreign affairs, over which Amery and Chamberlain often disagreed in the late 1930s; Irish home rule; rearmament and other preparations for war in the late 1930s; and National Service while Chamberlain was Director General of National Service. |