Joseph Chamberlain - Legacy

Legacy

Winston Churchill called Chamberlain "a splendid piebald: first black, then white, or, in political terms, first fiery red, then true blue." This is the conventional view of Chamberlain's politics, that he became gradually more conservative, beginning to the left of the Liberal party and ending to the right of the Conservatives. An alternative view is that he was always a radical in home affairs and an imperialist in foreign affairs, and that these stances were not in great conflict with each other – with both he rejected "laissez-faire capitalism". For instance, after leaving the Liberals he remained a proponent of workmen's compensation and old-age pensions.

He was one of the main founders of the University of Birmingham and was its first Chancellor. His papers can be found in the library there, and the University's clock tower is named the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower or more commonly 'Old Joe' or 'Big Joe'. He is also commemorated by a memorial in Chamberlain Square in central Birmingham. A large iron clock erected in his honour (1903, during his lifetime) stands in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. His Birmingham home, Highbury Hall, is now a civic conference venue and a venue for civil marriages, and is open occasionally to the public.

Chamberlain is the only individual to have divided both major British political parties - Gladstone's Liberals in 1886 and the Unionists in 1903 - in each case helping to wreck the political prospects of that party.

The papers of Joseph Chamberlain, Austen Chamberlain, Neville Chamberlain and Mary Chamberlain are housed in the University of Birmingham Special Collections.

The Midland Metro has a tram named after him. There is also a pre-kindergarten to grade 12 public school named in his honour in Grassy Lake, Alberta, Canada. The name "Chamberlain School" was chosen by Mr. William Salvage, a British immigrant and prosperous farmer, who donated the land for the construction of the school in 1910.