Albert Charles Chibnall was born on 28 January 1894 in
Hammersmith, the second son of George William Chibnall, bakery owner, and Kate (née) Butler. The first and third sons (George William Russell, and Ronald Stanley) were both killed in action in WWI. The oldest child was Isabella Rachel (Belle); there were also two girls who died in infancy. After attending a small local school, Chibnall moved, aged seven, to
Latymer Upper School. This was thought unsuitable and so, after two years, he moved to
Colet Court, the preparatory school for
St. Paul's, to which he moved in 1907. Chibnall gained an
Exhibition to
Clare College. He started off studying for Natural Sciences Tripos Part I, but this was cut short by the advent of war. He quickly applied for a commission, and spent three years serving mainly in the
Army Service Corps. In 1917 he applied to join the
Royal Flying Corps and learned to fly in Cairo; he gained his
wings in 1918. In 1919 Chibnall was taken on by
Professor H B Baker to do research for the newly instituted PhD at
Imperial College, but he later switched to study the nitrogenous constituents of green leaves with Professor
S. B. Schryver, whom he succeeded in 1929. He gained his PhD in 1921. After a year's work at the
Chelsea Physic Garden, Chibnall was awarded a travelling scholarship to the USA. He secured a place with the leading expert on plant proteins,
T B Osborne, at the
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1924 he joined the laboratory of
Jack Drummond at
University College London. In 1929 Cibnall took over the Chair of Bichemistry at
Imperial College. He was appointed the second
Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry at
Cambridge University in 1943. ==Family==