Her father was Joseph Chamberlain, a local industrialist who later became Mayor of Birmingham and a Cabinet minister and was, for roughly thirty years until he suffered a stroke in 1906, one of the most consequential figures in British politics.

Beatrice was her parents' eldest child; the birth of her younger brother Austen Chamberlain took the life of her mother.

[2] Her father married again and had four children, but the birth of the fifth child took the life of his second wife, Florence, and the newborn in 1875.

[1] Beatrice took over as carer[2] and governess to her half siblings: Neville, Ida, Hilda, and Ethel.

[2] Her brother, Austen, went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize, her half-brother Neville would be the Prime Minister[1] who declared war on Germany, and her half-sisters all had long, notable lives.