The English statesman Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937) held a number of high offices, most notably that of foreign secretary. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.

Austen Chamberlain was born in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 16, 1863. His father, Joseph Chamberlain, was the famous reforming mayor of Birmingham and a powerful figure in the Liberal and then the Conservative party. His mother, Helen, died in childbirth. Neville Chamberlain, Conservative prime minister of Great Britain from 1937 to 1940, was his younger half brother. Austen was educated at Rugby and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then studied in France and Germany.

Given his family background, it was inevitable that Chamberlain should enter politics. But as his contemporary Lord Birkenhead put it, "Austen always played the game and always lost it." In 1892 Chamberlain was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Unionist. When the Tories took office under Lord Salisbury in...