Talk:Austen Chamberlain

Untitled
Should "KG" be put after his name in the first para since he was a Knight of the Garter, a significant honour? Rlquall 03:27, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

There is nothing much about his father, in particular his name and a possibly more famous policitcian, or the tragic circumstances of his birth.Bedwasboy (talk) 17:49, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Austen Chamberlain did not lead the Conservative Party into an election
I recently made an addition here that Austen Chamberlain was the only Conservative Party leader not to have led the party into an election until Iain Duncan Smith. This got removed but I have now put back in because it is a very significant fact that a major party leader was not able to last long enough to present his party's case to the people. It is rather surprising that no one seems to have noticed this particular fact before. Matthew See (talk) 20:55, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

It's not true, though - Austen's brother Neville Chamberlain also didn't lead his party into an election. john k (talk) 22:39, 22 May 2010 (UTC) I stand corrected as I did not realise that there was a long gap in elections between 1935 and 1945.Matthew See (talk) 23:58, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Family?
'Chamberlain had a wife and three children.' Did they not have names? Any notable descendants? Valetude (talk) 15:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Non-sequitur
Austen was dominated by his elder sister and was therefore sent away to be educated first at Rugby School...
 * 'Therefore'? Valetude (talk) 19:30, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
 * The ODNB article used as a reference for that says "Beatrice had a strong personality, too strong for Austen who was sent to Rugby to release him from her thrall", I have added a quote from that to the article. DuncanHill (talk) 20:38, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Father
"Brought up to be the political heir of his father, whom he physically resembled, he was elected to Parliament..." It's true that Austen and Joseph did look almost exactly the same, but this seems rather irrelevant, at least in this context. Many sons physically resemble their fathers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.99.126.230 (talk) 03:31, 28 June 2020 (UTC)


 * It was a deliberate action on his part. One of his sons did the same thing. Arglebargle79 (talk) 11:59, 5 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Indeed. Austen deliberately imitated his father's distinctive appearance (monocle, orchid, etc) - in both cases was part of their political shtick, as we would nowadays say. Front-rank politicians often have their stage props (or, if they don't, are given them by cartoonists) in the same way that comedians and TV presenters have catchphrases.Paulturtle (talk) 23:20, 17 December 2021 (UTC) According to the Dutton biog (interview with his daughter, who was still alive in the mid 1980s) he had very poor eyesight, exacerbated by a teenage raquetball injury in the left eye, and sometimes literally did not recognise people. A photo in that book shows him wearing spectacles to sign the Locarno Treaty. So his monocle was very much a public stage prop, worn to imitate his father's appearance.Paulturtle (talk) 21:07, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Odd statement
I think the statement that "after the election of 1929, Chamberlain resigned his position as Foreign Secretary and went into retirement" is a bit odd as it suggested he chose to give up. The election had seen the Conservatives not only loose their majority, but finish behind Labour and Baldwin made no attempt to stay in office. Thus Chamberlain resigned in so far as the entire Government resigned. There was no prospect of him carrying on in the new Labour Government that was formed. He initially remained the Conservatives main spokesman on foreign affairs from the opposition benches. Dunarc (talk) 22:59, 14 April 2024 (UTC)