He was born in Whimple, Devonshire, the son of Kellow and Vera Moule Chesney. He married Anne M.H. Thackeray, a social worker, on 19 March 1951. They had one daughter Charlotte Chesney.

He attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College, a boarding school situated between Hertford and Hoddesdon, about 20 miles north of central London. He then studied at Wadham College, Oxford from 1928—33. He served in the British Army from 1940-46, retiring as a Lieutenant. He then entered journalism, eventually becoming a full time writer.