Guy Chapman was born in September 1889 and was educated at Westminster School, Christ Church, Oxford, and the London School of Economics. He married Margaret Storm Jameson in 1926.

Chapman served in the Royal Fusiliers, 1914-20, particularly in France and Belgium, 1915-18 (despatches twice, OBE, MC), and also served in World War Two. He was engaged in book publishing, 1920-40, and was Professor of Modern History, University of Leeds, 1945-53, and later visiting Professor, University of Pittsburgh, 1948-9.

He published, "A Passionate Prodigality", 1933; "Beckford, a biography", 1938; "A Bibligraphy of the Works of William Beckford", 1931; "Culture and Survival", 1940; "The Dreyfus Case: A Reassessment", 1955 (rewritten as "The Dreyfus Trials", 1972); "The Third Republic of France: the First Phase", 1963; and "Why France Collapsed", 1968.

He died in June 1972.