 Chadwick attended St Clements Church School in Urmston, then studied at night school from 1907 to 1911 at the Manchester Municipal College of Technology now the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology UMIST whilst training as a draughtsman at the British Westinghouse Electrical Company in Trafford Park under George Edwin Bailey (later Sir George Bailey) of Metropolitan Vickers.At age 18 in September 1911, he began work as Alliott Verdon-Roe's (later Sir Alliott) personal assistant and the firm's draughtsman at A.V.Roe and Company, Avro, based at Brownsfield Mill, Manchester.