Chamberlain, Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald

Chamberlain, Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald (1856–1944), soldier, inspector general of the RIC, and originator of snooker, was born 13 January 1856 at Upton Park, Upton, Buckinghamshire, England, only son of Lt-col. Charles Francis Falcon Chamberlain of the Indian army and Marion Ormsby Chamberlain, daughter of a Madras civil servant. Field-marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain was an uncle; Houston Stewart Chamberlain, political philosopher, was a first cousin. Educated abroad and at Brentwood School, Essex, Chamberlain entered the British army as a second lieutenant (1873), and served with the 2nd Bn, 11th (Devonshire) Regiment, in India. At Jubbulpore (1875) he introduced the use of coloured balls in playing Black Pool, and applied the name ‘snooker’ (‘novice’, specifically used of first-year cadets at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich) to the resulting game, which developed into the modern game of snooker. Chamberlain transferred to the Indian army (1876); assigned first to the Central India Horse, he saw active service in the second Afghan war and the Burma expedition of 1886–7; as military secretary to the government of Kashmir (1890–97), he reorganised the Kashmir army; and in 1899 he commanded the Khyber force. He served Sir F. S. (later Earl) Roberts (qv) as staff officer, ADC, Persian interpreter, and (during the first year of the second Boer war) private secretary. In 1900 he became CB (KCB 1903) and inspector general of the RIC, succeeding Sir Andrew Reed (qv) – a return to the earlier practice of appointing IGs with previous military service. Chamberlain became the second longest serving IG in the force's history. His tenure, however, came at a time when police effectiveness suffered from the effects of social changes, an uncertain future, and a quietist official approach to resurgent political agitation. Chamberlain was given a KCVO (1911) but his reports on the dangers of armed subversive organisations went to a government averse to confrontation, and police capability to meet a crisis was allowed to decline. The Hardinge commission (May–June 1916) found that he and Col. Edgeworth-Johnstone (qv) of the DMP had given the government all necessary information on developments before the Easter rising. Chamberlain resigned in July 1916 and retired to Brookville House, Raheny, Dublin, and later to England, where he died 28 May 1944 at The Wilderness, Ascot, Berkshire. His many decorations included the Afghan Medal 1878–80, the Queen's South Africa Medal (with five clasps), and the King's Police Medal. He married (1 September 1886) Mary Henrietta (1866–1936), daughter of Maj.-gen. A. C. Hay; their only child, Nora Mary (1887–1956) married Clive, 1st Baron Wigram.