Sir Neville Chamberlain | |
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| Born | (1856-01-13)13 January 1856 Slough, England |
| Died | 28 May 1944(1944-05-28) (aged 88) Ascot, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Indian Army |
| Years of service | 1873–1901 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles / wars | Second Anglo-Afghan War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order |
| Spouse | |
| Other work | Inspector-General,Royal Irish Constabulary |
Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald ChamberlainKCB KCVO KStJ KPM (13 January 1856 – 28 May 1944) was an officer in theBritish Indian Army. He was later Inspector-General of theRoyal Irish Constabulary, and resigned in the aftermath of the 1916Easter Rising inIreland. He is credited with having invented the game ofsnooker while serving in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur), India, in 1875.
Chamberlain was born into a military family, in Slough, Berkshire, as the son of Charles Francis Falcon Chamberlain and his wife Marianne Ormsby Drury. He was also the nephew ofNeville Bowles Chamberlain. He was educated atBrentwood School, and theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst.[1]
Chamberlain was commissioned asub-lieutenant in the11th Foot on 9 August 1873,[1][2] and promoted tolieutenant in August 1874.[1] In 1878, during theSecond Anglo-Afghan War, he joined the staff ofField Marshal SirFrederick Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army inAfghanistan. Chamberlain was wounded slightly at theBattle of Kandahar.[1][2][3] He served with Roberts atOotacamund between 1881 and 1885.[1][4] He was promoted tocaptain on 9 August 1885,[5] tobrevetmajor on 7 November 1885,[6] and to brevetlieutenant-colonel on 1 July 1887.[7]
In 1890 he becameMilitary Secretary to theKashmir government.[1] He was promoted to brevetcolonel on 6 January 1894.[8] He was promoted to colonel on 6 February 1899,[9] when he was appointed Colonel on the Staff inDelhi.[7]
Following the outbreak of theSecond Boer War, Lord Roberts had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in South Africa. Chamberlain rejoined Lord Roberts in South Africa in December 1899, as "FirstAide-de-Camp and Private Secretary",[3][10] and was highly commended by Roberts indespatches from the war in 1900.[11]
Chamberlain was made aCompanion of the Order of the Bath in 1900. In the same year he was appointed Inspector-General of theRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the armed police force for the whole ofIreland exceptDublin.[12] The force was under the direct control of the British Administration in Ireland, based inDublin Castle. It was responsible for intelligence gathering as well as maintaining order, and was seen as the "eyes and ears" of the government.[13] He formally resigned from the British Army on 1 November 1901.[14]
He was appointedKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in August 1903,[15]Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1911[12] and Knight of Grace in theVenerable Order of Saint John in April 1914,[16] and was awarded theKing's Police Medal in the 1915New Year Honours.[17] Chamberlain's years in the RIC coincided with the rise of a number of political, cultural and sporting organisations with the common aim of separating Ireland from the UK, which were often referred to asSinn Féin, culminating in the formation of theIrish Volunteers in 1913.[18]
In reports to theChief Secretary for Ireland,Augustine Birrell, and theUnder-Secretary, SirMatthew Nathan, Chamberlain warned that the Volunteers were preparing to stage an insurrection and proclaim Irish independence.[19] However, in April 1916, when Nathan showed him a letter from the army commander in the south of Ireland telling of an expected landing of arms on the south-west coast and a rising planned forEaster, they were both "doubtful whether there was any foundation for the rumour".[20] TheEaster Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, and lasted for six days, ending only when much ofSackville Street had been destroyed by artillery fire. Although theRoyal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (theHardinge commission) cleared the RIC of any blame for the Rising, Chamberlain was eventually forced to resign following continued criticism of the force's intelligence handling.[1]
After his retirement, Chamberlain lived inAscot, Berkshire, England. On 19 March 1938, he had a letter published inThe Field in which he claimed to have invented the game ofsnooker at the officers'mess of the 11thDevonshire Regiment in Jubbulpore (Jabalpur),India in 1875. His claim was supported by the authorCompton Mackenzie in a letter toThe Billiard Player in 1939, and has been accepted by present-day governing bodies, such as theInternational Billiards and Snooker Federation.[3]
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TheOxford Dictionary of National Biography describes the circumstances in which the new game came about:[1]
While serving at Jubbulpore in 1875 Chamberlain developed a new variation ofblack pool by introducing coloured balls into the game. It was dubbed snooker—a derogatory nickname given to first-year cadets studying at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich that Chamberlain had heard about from a young Royal Artillery subaltern visiting the mess. Chamberlain later retorted to a fellow player who had failed to pot a coloured ball: "Why, you're a regular snooker". While explaining the term to his fellow officers Chamberlain, to mollify the officer concerned, remarked that they were all "snookers at the game" and the name snooker or snooker's pool immediately stuck.
Chamberlain married Mary Henrietta Hay (1866–1936) in 1886. Their daughter, Nora (1887–1956), marriedClive Wigram, 1st Baron Wigram.[12] Chamberlain died frommyocarditis at his home on 28 May 1944, aged 88.[1]
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