User:Dumelow/Norman Gwynne Chamberlain
Norman Gwynne Chamberlain (1884-1 December 1917) was a British Army officer killed in the First World War.
Born 1884 died 1917. Son of Joseph Chamberlain's brother Herbert and his Canadian first wife Lilian and therefore a cousin to Neville Chamberlain. Was a member of the Birmingham City COuncil from 1911 and became chairman of its parks committee. Joined Grenadier Guards in 1914 and was acting captain by 1915. Klled along with all members of his company 1 December 1917. Worked with the Birmingham Boys' Clubs, the Street Children's Union, Children's Courts and Women's Settlements. Following his death Neville, who was close to Norman, adopted many of these causes.[1]
Was reported missing on 30 November, while in command of a French mortar battery. Confirmed dead on 10 February. Was the closest cousin to both Neville and Austen Chamberlain.[2]
Was a unitarian. Served as a Liberal Unionist counciller for Small Heath from 1911 until his death.[3]
MA from Magdalen College, Oxford.[4]
The Chamberlain (Norman G.) Bequest was established as a trust (trustee Sir John Murray) with a quarter of his estate left in his will.[5]
Born 19 August 1884 at Vectis Lodge, 37 Augustus Road, Edgbaston, Worcestershire. Was the eldest son of Herbert and Lilian, who had married the previous year. A twin brother Walter Seymout died 15 May 1885. Had two younger sisters. Mother remarried to Alfred Clayton Cole in 1907 after HErbert's 1904 death. By 1891 the family had moved to Penryn, Somerset Road, Edgbaston, where they maintained eight servants. By 1911 Norman had his hown residences in Birmingham and at 1 Oakley Square, Camden, London, where he lived with two lodgers and three servants. Father was chair of the Central Insurance Company and Birmingham Small Arms Company but, unlike other family members, had little interest in politics though he served as a justice of the peace and on the Birmingham Licensing COmmittee. Neville and Austen regarded Norman almsot as a brother and he worked closely with Neville on the City Council. As a child suffered from gastric catarrh and a weak heart. Attended Arthur Dunn's Preparatory School in New Barnet, Herts 1893-1898 (now Ludgrove School). He refused a scholarship to Eton College, to allow it to be offered to less wealthy children, and attended as a fee-paying Oppidan Scholar. Served in the Eton Rifle Volunteer Corps as a colour sergeant and was a rower, serving on a crew with the future economist John Meynard Keynes. Did not progress to the sixth form and Neville Chamberlain recalled he had not been "altogether happy" at teh school. After leaving he toured the Loire Balley from July to OCtober 1902. He was excused Responsions (examinations) for entry to Magdalen College, OXford. At the end of his first term he received a demyship (scholarship). In 1903 he spent his holiday with a Prussian Guards officer in the Baltic, learning German and receiving a good impression of the German army with which he associted. Spring 1904 he helped establoish the non-partisan Oxford University Tariff Reform Leagueto advocate for perferentialism for trade in the British Empire, in opposition to free trade. Received a 2nd class bachelors degree in modern history in 1906, he was disappointed not to achieve a first, having suffered from ill helath. He was unable to decide on a career and so travelled from Autumn 1906 to the west indies, canada and the far east, returning to Britain in May 1907. This included a visit to the Port Arthur where he remarked on the heroism of the Japanese in taking the port from the Russians in the 1904-05 RUsso-Japanese War. On his return to Britain he was invited by William Hartley Carnegie, then a vicar in Birmingham, to stay in the city and witness the life of the working classes there. Chamberlain, together with his Magdalen friend Edward Vivian Birchall and two other young men, took up residence in Edgbaston. Chamberlain was particularly interested in the boys who were "lounging about the two great stations at Snow Hill and New Street, or selling papers in the city centre, got no help from any voluntary agency" and were semi-destitute and undernourished. The social reform campaigner Edmund Harvey remarked on Chamberlains ability to converse with the boys "in the most natural way, as though they were old friends". He represented the boys when they appeared in court and helped them with their probation. He also ran a Working Lads Club for them in Dalton Street, sited between the magistrates and crown courts, and took them on holidays to the countryside and coast. Chamberlain was also involved in the Street Boys Union and advised a Home Office committee looking into the effectiveness of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907. On 20 January 1909 Chamberlain presented a report to the Association of the Midland Local Authorities in Smethwick in which he analysed the boys' position, identified gaps in their care and recommended ways to help the boys through involving their parents, police, social services and charities. His two main recommendations were to involve them in employment exchanges and to set up after-care committees in schools to discuss the boys futures before they left. In Autumn 1908 Chamberlain followed Harvey to Toynbee Hall, a charitable institution in London's East End. There Chamberlain worked with local government and schools, ran Working Boys Clubs, assisted the new Boy Scout movement and sat on the Central (Unemployed) Body, established under the Unemployed Workmen Act 1905 to cope with the larhe number of unemployed in the capital. He also sat with Harvey on the London County Council Employment Exchanges Committee, seeking to estbalish employment eschanges, and on the Classification Committee, coordinating local distress committees, the Works Committee, looking to expand employment, and on the Education Committee. He was a strong supporter of Albert Mansbridge's Workers' Educational Association. In 1909 he co-authored a booklet outlining the findings of the final report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–1909. Done to "In autumn 1909"
https://slowdusk.magd.ox.ac.uk/people/norman-gwynne-chamberlain/
http://westberkshirewarmemorials.org.uk/texts/stories/WBP00402S.php
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/554456/norman-gwynne-chamberlain/
https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/55188
https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XNC%2F1%2F18
- ^ Self, Robert (5 July 2017). The Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters: Volume 1: The Making of a Politician, 1915–20. Taylor & Francis. p. 421. ISBN 978-1-351-96377-0.
- ^ Chamberlain, Sir Austen (25 August 1995). The Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters: The Correspondence of Sir Austen Chamberlain with His Sisters Hilda and Ida, 1916-1937. Cambridge University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-521-55157-1.
- ^ Cawood, I.; Upton, C. (8 April 2016). Joseph Chamberlain: International Statesman, National Leader, Local Icon. Springer. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-137-52885-8.
- ^ Oxford University Gazette. Oxford University Press. 1903. p. 68.
- ^ Keeling, Guy William (1953). Trusts & Foundations: A Select Guide to Organizations and Grant-making Bodies Operating in Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Bowes & Bowes. p. 27.