CHAMBERLAIN, Neville.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Signed photograph. An attractive portrait of the future prime minister, signed and presented by Chamberlain to a local politician in his Birmingham constituency following his victory in the 1935 general election.The verso is inscribed in pencil "Mr Yates 69 Harborne Road". Ralph Cyril Yates (1898-1976), who lived at that address in Chamberlain's Edgbaston constituency, was chairman of the North Edgbaston Conservative organisation and served as an Edgbaston councillor from 1931. He later served as an alderman from 1949 and Lord Mayor of Birmingham from 1951.Yates's papers, including extensive correspondence with Chamberlain, are held at the University of Birmingham. On 9 January 1936, Yates thanked Chamberlain for the gift of the signed portrait, one of those presented to branch chairmen in the division, calling it "such a tangible memento of the 1935 Election". Although he thought he ought to give it to the North Edgbaston Men's Branch, he admitted, "I am going to be completely selfish and keep it for myself". Chamberlain replied four days later that he was glad Yates would retain it, "for this was, in fact, what I had intended" (Papers of the Yates family of Birmingham, Reference MS90).

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