He was born in
Croydon on 14 March 1875 to Dr Henry Thomas Lanchester MD and his wife Catherine Forster. He was one of eight children, but the only son. In 1893 he was admitted to
Cambridge University. He studied Science and graduated BA in 1897 and gained an MA in 1900. He went on to work as a Demonstrator in Zoology at
University College, Dundee. He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1907. His proposers were
John Graham Kerr,
Edward J. Bles,
Malcolm Laurie and
Ramsay Heatley Traquair. He resigned in 1910 when he returned to England. In 1910 he was living at 19 Fernshaw Road in
Chelsea, London, a fashionable three storey Victorian mid-terraced villa. At the outbreak of the
First World War he was in the
Royal Navy Reserve so was immediately called up. However, he moved to the
Royal Army Medical Corps and rose to the rank of captain. He returned to
Cambridge in later life, living at 10 St Andrews Hill in 1945. ==Academic work==