 He joined the Tyne Pilot Service on leaving school, but left before reaching manhood and decided to become an artist.Chambers enrolled at the Government School of Design in Newcastle upon Tyne and later went to study in Paris in the ateliers of Professors Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre, before settling at North Shields as a professional artist.He first began exhibiting in 1877, showing several examples at the South Shields Fine Art & Industrial Exhibition.