Born in Chatham where he subsequently worked at the dockyard. Became interested in entomology, primarily Lepidoptera, at an early age and published various notes in the Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer and other periodicals on the local fauna. In 1869 he transferred to the Admiralty, and a year or so later he was one of the founder members of the SLENHS.
J.J. Walker in EMM., 43, 1907, 16-17, records that Chaney's interest in Coleoptera and Hemiptera developed later in his life but that he still succeeded in amassing 'good collections of these Orders, which he disposed of a few years ago... Mr Chaney was a man of fine physique and of wide and varied reading, and a genial and hearty companion in the field; and the writer of this notice whose deceased friend was his earliest Entomological instructor, recalls many pleasant days spent with him among the insects of the woods and chalk-downs of the Chatham district'.
Chaney's name appears on Coleoptera in the D.G. Hall collection at Baldock Museum (I thank Trevor James for pointing out these specimens to me) and he was a major contributor to the C.G. Hall collection at Oldham (specimens are dated between 1878 and 1890 and are from Essex, Hants., Kent, London, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex and Scotland. I am grateful to Simon Hayhow for this information) Apart from the obituary by Walker there is another in ERJV, 19, 1907, 28 (Anonymous). (MD 1/O2)