Background
Born in Toronto, Canada West, the son of William Lamont Chaplin and Harriet Dew, Chaplin was educated at the Public Schools and Saint Catharines Collegiate Institute.
Born in Toronto, Canada West, the son of William Lamont Chaplin and Harriet Dew, Chaplin was educated at the Public Schools and Saint Catharines Collegiate Institute.
A manufacturer in Saint Catharines, Ontario, he was president of the Chaplin Wheel Company, Canada Axe and Harvest Tool Company, and the Wallingford Manufacturing Company. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons representing the riding of Lincoln in the 1917 federal election. A Conservative, he was re-elected in 1921, 1925, 1926, and 1930.
In 1926, he was the Minister of Trade and Commerce in the short lived cabinet of Arthur Meighen.
In 1888, Chaplin married Edna Elizabeth Burgess. He died in Saint Catharines at the age of 74.
Chaplin served four years as a member of Saint Catharines city council.