Short answers, pulled from the story.
Joseph Chamberlain was a British statesman who lived from the 8th of July 1836 to the 2nd of July 1914. He served as Colonial Secretary and is notable for splitting both the Liberal and Unionist parties, transforming Birmingham as its mayor, and helping to cause the Second Boer War. Winston Churchill described him as the man who "made the weather" in British politics, despite never becoming Prime Minister.
As mayor from 1873, Chamberlain purchased both the city's gas companies for £1,953,050 and the waterworks for £1,350,000, creating municipal utilities. He also drove the clearance of central slums to build Corporation Street, a scheme that reduced the local death rate from approximately 53 per 1,000 in 1873-75 to 21 per 1,000 in 1879-81.
Chamberlain believed granting Ireland a separate Parliament would weaken Westminster's control over the United Kingdom and threaten the British Empire. He argued that five million Irishmen had no greater right to self-governance than the five million inhabitants of London. His resignation from Gladstone's Cabinet on the 27th of March 1886 triggered the Liberal Party split.
The Jameson Raid was a failed attempt in December 1895 to overthrow the Afrikaner South African Republic, organised by Cape Colony Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes. Chamberlain had been informed of the expected rebellion beforehand and his Assistant Under-Secretary had urged Rhodes to "hurry up." A subsequent parliamentary select committee absolved Chamberlain of responsibility, but insider accounts published by The Van Riebeeck Society in 2002 alleged that the Colonial Office covered up his involvement.
Chamberlain resigned from the Cabinet in 1903 to campaign for tariff reform, meaning taxes on imports in place of free trade, intended to create preferential trade links across the British Empire. He won the support of most Unionist MPs, but the Unionists suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 general election, ending the campaign.
Chamberlain had seven children across two marriages. By his first wife Harriet Kenrick he had a daughter, Beatrice, and a son, Austen, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize. By his second wife Florence Kenrick he had Neville, who became Prime Minister, as well as Ida, Hilda, and Ethel. A fifth child by Florence died alongside her mother on the 13th of February 1875.