He won scholarships to Hackney Downs School (formerly the Grocers' Company's School), and another from there to Chelsea Polytechnic.[1] After gaining his BSc degree in 1929 he briefly considered a career in teaching,[citation needed] but then discovered that he could sit an examination for a scholarship to the University of Cambridge. He matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge as a scholar, and graduated in biochemistry at the age of 20 in 1931.