Webb was born in Dorset and educated at Poole Grammar School and Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied nerve gases and graduated with a first-class BA in Natural Sciences in 1942.

Together, they wrote a classic textbook on the subject, Enzymes, which was first published by Longmans in 1958,[3] Webb subsequently took a chair in biochemistry[4] at the University of Queensland but continued to collaborate with Dixon on further editions.

He retired in 1986 but continued to work on the enzyme list of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) while living in Townsville.

After moving to Queensland Webb collaborated with Burt Zerner on Jack bean urease, starting with a study of its purification and assay,[11] followed by other papers on the same enzyme.

[12] Webb's interest in biochemical nomenclature started early in his career,[13] and after the IUBMB compilation was published for the last time as a printed book[14] he wrote a retrospective article about it.