Eggleton was born at
Kingston-on-Thames on 19 March 1903. He attended the
Tiffin School there before going to the
University of London graduating BSc in 1922 and receiving his doctorate (DSc) in 1930. He then received a post at the
University of Edinburgh rising to Reader in Biochemistry in the Physiology Department. He also acted as Scientific Advisor to
BBC Scotland. In 1927, in experiments on frog muscles in
Cambridge, he discovered the release (on passing an electrical current) of a previously unknown substance which he labelled phosphagen. It was shown that the substance played a major role in muscular contraction. He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1931. His proposers were Sir
Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer,
Alfred Joseph Clark, and
Henry Dryerre. During the
Second World War he served in the Gas Identification Service (part of the Edinburgh Civil Defence team). Eggleton died on 7 October 1954, aged 51. ==Family==