Martin Schröder was born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire of Estonian refugee parents in 1954, and was educated at Montem Primary School and Slough Grammar School. He is first in family to attend university, and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Sheffield in 1975 and a PhD from Imperial College London in 1978 where his research on oxo complexes of osmium and ruthenium was supervised by William P. Griffith.