By Jonathan Berg Birmingham is an intriguing and distinctive city with some ways of working that can be traced back through time. For example, it has always been a place where people are welcomed to come with ideas and able to take them forward without too much hindrance. Take, for example the Georgian period, with James Watt arriving from Glasgow to work with Matthew Boulton and bringing his improved steam engine into production. Similarly, John Baskerville came from Wolverley near Worcester and developing businesses in printing and Japanning. In the Victorian era’s Jewellery Quarter, cousins George and Henry Elkington developed electroplating, while Josiah Mason came from Kidderminster and established the world’s largest pen nib factory. The Wouhra brothers are a twentieth century example. Originally from New Delhi, their West Bromwch and Aston based East End foods spotted a major opportunity in the food industry the took on to become a national brand. These are just a few examples of people coming to a growing metropolis which, in earlier times was in part successful because it lacked rules and regulations, with little to hinder those who wanted to take something forward make a name for themselves. It was to this dirty and grimy place of opportunity that Joseph Chamberlain arrived from North London in 1854 as an eighteen year old. He first helped take forward a successful screw making business. He then used those business skills to new opportunities in local politics, and helped to change Birmingham in dramatic ways. Chamberlain’s Early Life Joseph Chamberlain was born into a middle-class family in south London. The family business in Milk Street in the East End was a firm of cordwainers, or shoe makers. Joseph received a reasonable education and, after the family moved to Highbury in north London, attended a school linked to University College London. His family were nonconformists and members of the Unitarian Church, which put a strong emphasis on good works and rejected the Trinity. At the time, nonconformists were denied entry to Oxford and Cambridge, so an elite university was not an option. Screw Patent Rights As an 18-year-old in 1854, Chamberlain moved to Birmingham to work in his uncle Mr Nettlefold’s factory. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, John Nettlefold had seen an American process for manufacturing improved screws. Traditional wood screws had blunt ends, but the new machinery could produce pointed screws that were much easier to use. The UK rights to the patent were acquired and Joseph’s father offered his brother-in-law £10,000 to help fund the investment needed to bring the process into use in the Birmingham factory. For around twenty years Chamberlain helped make Nettlefold and Chamberlain into a world-leading producer of screws and fixings. In particular, Chamberlain worked on the financial and marketing side of the business while his cousin John Nettlefold concentrated on expanding factory production. Chamberlain’s business methods included buying competitor businesses and introducing new marketing and selling techniques. He showed an opportunistic streak. For example, when workers went on strike in France, he packed screws in the French style and moved quickly to capture the market. Today the firm still exists as GKN with its headquarters in Redditch just south of the city. Self-Improvement Chamberlain arrived in Birmingham at a time when many people believed self-improvement was the route to education. This included the Sunday school movement and societies set up to encourage learning. Chamberlain joined the Edgbaston Debating Society and also became a teacher in classes at the Church of the Messiah. The church stood on the bridge over the canal where the Black Sabbath bench is today. A lasting legacy of self improvement we can see today is the Midland Institute behind the Council House in Margaret Street. Its penny lectures, reading rooms and classes helped bring education and new ideas within reach of ordinary Birmingham people. From Industry to Local Politics Chamberlain’s time in business gave him many of the skills he later used in his political career. Birmingham’s success was partly due to its lack of regulation. Even in Georgian times the town was run by fifty Street Commissioners. The first town council only came into being in 1838, and powers were still shared with the Commissioners until 1854. The town council often met in a local pub and was strongly influenced by the Economic Party, a group within the Liberal Party which argued for very low spending on public projects. It was clear that the town was in a mess and, in 1869, Chamberlain was elected as councillor for St Paul’s ward in the Jewellery Quarter. Chamberlain proved a good political organiser and became the leading figure in Birmingham’s Liberal caucus. His belief in education also influenced his early political work with the Birmingham Education League, arguing for free elementary education for children as an alternative to relying on self-improvement. This project became the National Education League, whose work helped shape the 1870 Education Act. Birmingham Mayor In 1873 Chamberlain became Mayor, a position he held for three years. His work saw him apply many of the business methods he had used at Nettlefold and Chamberlain to taking the town forward. Birmingham, while hugely successful as a manufacturing centre, was struggling with basic services such as water, sewage and with poor quality housing. Chamberlain set about changing this, saying that by the time he had finished as Mayor the place would not know itself. He needed considerable finance to take forward his many ideas for improving the town. He saw an opportunity in Birmingham’s two gas companies, which he brought into council ownership. He then invested in larger gas works ,more suited to the growing needs of industry and the people. The production of gas from coal gave considerable profits which could be used in other areas and especially to service council borrowing for major improvement projects. The council also took control of the water company during Chamberlain’s time, although the long-term solution of bringing water from the Elan Valley was not completed until 1905. The town centre slums were cleared in a controversial improvement scheme, with Corporation Street designed as a grand Parisian-style shopping street. Criticism of the scheme included the lack of rehousing for many of those driven out of the slums. Ideals in Terracotta Much of the physical development of Chamberlain’s ideas was taken forward by the architectural practice of Martin and Chamberlain. Their work included Victorian Gothic styled schools, libraries and baths with red brick and terracotta facades. Many such buildings can still be seen around today’s city. The Chamberlain Memorial Fountain, which still stands in Chamberlain Square, was also designed by Martin and Chamberlain. Close by their finest design is considered the School of Art in Margaret Street behind the Council House. Interestingly, the firm did not enter the competition for the Council House itself. That competition was won by Yeoville Thomason, although there was much disagreement about the way the judging had been carried out and his original plans were modified including the addition of a dome. Controversial National Politician Chamberlain moved into national politics in 1876 and left the post of Mayor part way through his third term. After an unsuccessful attempt to become an MP in Sheffield, he entered Parliament as an MP for Birmingham when George Dixon gave up his seat for him. Joseph Chamberlain never became prime minister, though it was clearly an ambition. However, he held senior office first in the Liberal government of William Gladstone and later in the Liberal Unionist-Conservative coalition led by Lord Salisbury. As President of the Board of Trade under Gladstone, Chamberlain became one of the leading radical voices in government. However, he broke with Gladstone in 1886 over plans for Irish Home Rule, fearing that a separate Irish parliament would weaken the United Kingdom and the Empire. He resigned from the government and helped form the Liberal Unionist movement. From 1895 to 1903 he served as Colonial Secretary in Salisbury’s government, where he became closely associated with imperial policy and the South African, or Boer, War. His handling of events in southern Africa remains controversial and is one of the main reasons he is remembered as both a reformer and an imperialist. He resigned again in 1903, this time from the Unionist government led by Arthur Balfour, in order to campaign for tariff reform and closer economic links within the Empire. This issue split the Unionist alliance just as Home Rule had split the Liberals nearly twenty years earlier. Some historians blame Chamberlain for helping to divide both major parties of his day. University of Birmingham: Chamberlain’s Last Big Project The University of Birmingham was certainly the pinnacle of Chamberlain’s drive to place education at the heart of a progressive city. In the 1890s he took Mason Science College forward and helped it gain a university charter in record time. He worked to raise huge sums to develop the new university. One of the benefactors, Andrew Carnegie, encouraged him to model it on the large campus-style universities being developed in America. Chamberlain sent a delegation to America to investigate and also persuaded Lord Calthorpe to donate land on his Edgbaston estate. Today, the centrepiece of the UK’s first red-brick, campus-style university is ‘Old Joe’, the landmark clock tower named in memory of Joseph Chamberlain. Sometimes Difficult Personal Life Chamberlain’s personal life had its share of sadness and he married three times. The first two marriages were to members of the Kenrick family. Both Harriet Kenrick and Florence Kenrick died following childbirth. Florence died in 1875 after giving birth to twins. One of the babies was stillborn and was buried with her. His third wife was the American Mary Endicott, daughter of a wealthy and influential political family. Chamberlain met her during a visit to Washington in 1887. Mary became an important source of support and companionship in his later life. Birmingham celebrated Chamberlain’s seventieth birthday in style but, shortly afterwards, he suffered a severe stroke from which he never fully recovered. This affected both his national political role and his chancellorship of the University of Birmingham. Austen and Neville Chamberlain Two of Chamberlain’s sons also went into national politics. Austen Chamberlain is best remembered for helping to negotiate the Locarno Pact after the First World War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Neville Chamberlain spent time on a family business on Andros Island in the Carribean trying to grow sisal for rope production. This failed project cost the family some £50,000. Returning to England he entered local and then national politics and became prime minister in 1937. However, he is mainly remembered for his policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler and his claim of “peace for our time” after returning from Munich in 1938. The agreement lasted less than a year before the outbreak of the Second World War. Some say he was buying time but in fact it allowed Germany to invade Czechoslovakia and add key arms manufatoring capacity to their war effort. Joseph Chamberlain Legacy Joseph Chamberlain is seen as someone who did a huge amount to turn Victorian Birmingham into a model for other towns and cities to follow. His methods of running a political party were also copied. Chamberlain was a controversial figure in both his business and political life, with supporters and critics often divided in equal measure. However, Birmingham certainly has a great deal to thank him for.