He was educated at Felsted School and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1884, graduating in 1888 with a first class in literae humaniores.

He moved in 1899 to The Standard as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to The Times, to act as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Arthur Twining Hadley of Yale University on preparation of the eleven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

[1] In 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of The Britannica Year-Book, Chisholm was appointed day editor of The Times.

He was financial editor throughout World War I, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, published in 1922.

[1] Their son Archibald Chisholm played a key role in the development of the oil industry in Kuwait and was editor of the Financial Times from 1937 to 1940.