Sir Austen Chamberlain (1863 – 1937)

Sir Austen Chamberlain original David Low caricature artwork

In 1892 Chamberlain was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Unionist. When the Tories took office under Lord Salisbury in 1895, he rose rapidly from civil lord of the Admiralty, to a Cabinet seat as postmaster general, to the chancellorship of the Exchequer. He later served as secretary of state of India as a member of the coalition War Cabinet under David Lloyd George, and again as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1921 he succeeded Bonar Law as leader of the Conservative party. Because of his position on the "Irish question" and because many Tories wished to dissolve the coalition with Lloyd George, he was ousted from the leadership in 1922. Lord Birkenhead put it, "Austen always played the game and always lost it." When the Tories returned to power in 1924, Chamberlain was named Foreign Secretary, a post which he held until 1929. In 1925 he negotiated the Locarno Pact, a series of mutual defence and arbitration treaties among the major European powers. He was convinced that only respect for, and consultation with, Germany would win lasting peace. Sir Austen Chamberlain asked David Low, when he was posing for this caricature at the Foreign office, 'Need I wear my monocle? I can't see with it very well.' "

Size 20cm x 38cm

Medium Pencil on paper

Publication New Statesman

Published 20 March 1926