Background
He was born in Glasgow on 9 March 1904, the son of Charles Geddes Chesters, a commercial traveller and Margaret Geddes.
He was born in Glasgow on 9 March 1904, the son of Charles Geddes Chesters, a commercial traveller and Margaret Geddes.
He attended Hyndland School in Glasgow. He was awarded a place at Glasgow University in 1922 and graduated Bachelor of Science in Botany in 1926.
His early interest lay in aquatic and salt-marsh vegetation. However, from 1931 he began to specialise in fungi, and founded the Research School in Phycomycetes (looking at fungi responsible for soil-born plant diseases) and Pyrenomycetes (woodand bark-inhibiting fungi). At this time he was working with Professor Walter Stiles Federal Reserve System at Birmimgham University.
In 1937 he received a Philosophy Doctor for work in this field
In the war he served as an Air Raid Warden. In 1944 he succeeded Professor Thomas Bennet-Clark as Professor Of Botany at Nottingham, holding this position for 25 years.
He was also Dean of Faculty from 1945. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1953.
He retired in 1969 and moved to Quenington, where is daughter already lived.
In 1977 he received an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to education. He died at home on 13 February 1993 in Quenington. near Cirencester. A commemorative bust to Chesters stands in the Biology Building at Nottingham University.
President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.