He is most noted for his designs for more than 40 ballets or revues, including many of the early works of Sir Frederick Ashton and Dame Ninette de Valois.
[1] [2] After his father deserted the family when he was still a baby, Chappell and his mother moved to Balham, London, where she pursued a career as a fashion journalist.
[4] Chappell studied at the Chelsea School of Art where aged fourteen he met fellow students Edward Burra and Barbara Ker-Seymer forging a life-long friendship.
[5] In his book Studies in Ballet he describes an occasion in North Africa when his company had no transport and had to march to their destination about eighteen miles away.
Other speakers included Dame Ninette de Valois director of the Royal Ballet, Marie Rambert, Arnold Haskell, William Cole and Douglas Kennedy[12] He retired to his home in Rye, East Sussex and died there after a long illness.