Charles Chapman

Charles Henry Chapman (1876 – 2 March 1957) was a New Zealand unionist and politician of the Labour Party and various predecessor parties.

Early life Chapman was born in London, England, in 1876. At the age of 17 he joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and was later secretary of the London ILP Federation. Chapman was a linotype operator by trade as well as a union secretary. Upon leaving England he was made a life member of the ILP. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1905.

He settled in Wellington and became secretary of both the Wellington Typographical Union and Wellington Journalists Union. Chapman was also secretary of the Wellington Female Printers Assistants Union and the Wellington Related Printing Trades Union and was a proponent of related unions merging together for unity.

During World War I he was an advocator for dependents of servicemen and their rehabilitation. He became a member of the National Reparation Board.

In 1915, Chapman ran for Mayor of Wellington as the Social Democratic candidate. In a three horse race, he came a distant third. He ran for mayor a further three times as the Labour Party's nominee. He ran in 1925, 1927 and 1938 placing second on each occasion. At the 1944 election he was nominated to be Labour's candidate for the mayoralty, one of five candidates he was not selected with Labour Party president James Roberts prevailing.

Member of Parliament He contested the electorate in the and came third behind Robert Wright and William Henry Peter Barber.

He contested the electorate in the for the Labour Party and came third behind Hugh Campbell and Gilbert McKay. In , he stood in the Hawke's Bay electorate again and came a distant third (and last) after Gilbert McKay and Andrew Hamilton Russell. In the , he stood in the electorate and was beaten by the incumbent, Robert Wright, who had also beaten him in 1908.

In 1928, Chapman was elected as the Member of Parliament for Wellington North which he held until the seats abolition in 1946. He then became the Member for from 1946 until 1954 when he retired.

In 1945 he was appointed a member of the Wellington Rehabilitation Committee. and in 1953 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.

Chapman died in Wellington in 1957, aged 80, survived by a step-son and step-daughter.