Joseph Chamberlain and Beatrice Webb

A new years day diary entry, 1901, recalling relations with

 Joseph Chamberlain, influential politician and father

 of Neville Chamberlain,which began in 1882.

Beatrice Webb, 1900

Joseph Chamberlain

 

 "Then came the catastrophy of my life. At a London dinner party I met Joseph Chamberlain. At once, and I think on both sides, there arose the question of marriage. He was seeking a wife, attractive, docile and capable I was ripe for love: revelling in newly acquired health and freedom, my intelligence wide awake, my heart unclaimed.

[...]

"In all this business of life I remained hardheaded and cold, using whatever feminine charms I possessed to further my intellectual ends. Sentimental relationships I had: but the sentiment was always on the other side! Possibly I owe this debt to Chamberlain. He absorbed the whole of my sexual feeling."(1)

 Further reading:
Beatrice on Joseph
Joseph Chamberlain
Extract

Credit:
 LSE Digital Library and LSE Flickr

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