He was born in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, Warwickshire, (now the West Midlands), England, the son of Joseph Henry Pickard, a tool maker, and Alice his wife, the daughter of Robert Howson of Birmingham. From 1883-1891 he attended King Edward VIs Grammar School. In 1891 he studied chemistry at Mason Science College (which later became the University of Birmingham), under Percy F. Frankland and obtained a first class BSc, then awarded by the University of London. In 1896 he attended the University of Munich as an 1851 Exhibitioner being awarded a PhD summa cum laude' in 1898.