Alexander Killen Macbeth CMG, DSc, FAA was born in Ireland on 11 August 1889 at Drumbuoy, Strabane, second son of William, a butcher, and Sarah Anna.

[2] On 13 January 1928, Macbeth with his wife and two daughters sailed on the RMS Mooltan from London to Adelaide.

There he took up his appointment as the Angas Chair of Chemistry in the University of Adelaide, which he held until his retirement in 1954, when he was created Professor Emeritus.

Macbeth’s tenure of the Adelaide Chair coincided with the depression and then with the Second World War.

[2] Alexander Killen Macbeth married Edyth Helenea Patricia Macafee in Ireland in 1921.