Chapman's family came from Berwick-on-Tweed and he himself was born and grew up in Burnopfield, or Burnup Field as is written in the recently declassified ministerial documents. The son of an impoverished publican, Chapman was handsome, athletic and had a lust for adventure. He graduated from petty thief to safe-breaker, raiding Odeon Cinemas in the thirties. He was eventually arrested and imprisoned in Jersey for his daring crimes, but at his life's end he received the ultimate accolade, being described as one of Britain's greatest and bravest war heroes.
Still in jail after the German invasion of the Channel Islands in 1940, he declared his hatred of Britain and was signed up as an agent. First of all he was lined up to face a firing squad to fool British Intelligence and was then sent to Germany for intensive training.
After being parachuted into Cambridgeshire in an attempt to blow up the De Havillands Aircraft Factory at Hatfield and the Mosquito Development at London Colney, he at once made himself known to MI5. They set about a ruse to foil the Germans with his help. They prepared bonfires around the aerodromes to look as though they had been damaged intensively thus providing Eddie with an alibi for the Germans. He returned to Germany a hero and was awarded the Iron Cross,110,000 Reichsmarks, his own yacht and a job teaching a spy school in occupied Norway. Chapman was known to MI5 as Zig-Zag and by the Germans as 'Fritz'. He was sent back to Britain in 1944 to report on V1 rocket damage bringing vital intelligence for the Allies. He sent accurate details of the allied Normandy landings, knowing that Hitler believed the invasion would come elsewhere.
After confessing to telling his Norwegian girl-friend, Dagmar, that he was a British spy, he was retired by MI5, who feared that it would be too dangerous to continue. Chapman was given a lump sum of £6000 and the outstanding criminal charges laid against him were quietly dropped.
After the war Chapman was involved with the Kray brothers and 'mad' Frankie Frazer, spending heavily in London society. Later, he and his wife Betty, bought a health farm at Shenley Lodge in Hertfordshire. Chapman's extraordinary story was made into a film 'Triple Cross' starring Christopher Plummer.