His father was an English-born architect, who was killed at the Battle of Vimy Ridge while serving with the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery.

[3] Chamberlin began his engineering career with the British aircraft company (and later ejection seat manufacturers) Martin-Baker before returning to Canada.

His longest tenure began as a research engineer (1942–1945) at Noorduyn Aircraft in Montreal, working on the Norseman and serving in this position until the end of the Second World War.

[5] According to Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, it was under Chamberlin's leadership that the Arrow's technical design team conducted engineering research and applied development techniques that were "a generation or more ahead of those used by other aircraft companies" at the time.

Chamberlin had been impressed with NASA engineer John Houbolt's advocacy of Lunar orbit rendezvous as the method to go to the Moon.

[9] In 2019, Canada Post issued stamps commemorating Canadian contributions to the Apollo 11 mission which included Chamberlin's likeness.