Born in Liverpool, son of a local doctor: educated Dulwich and Liverpool Colleges; Trinity College, Cambridge 1872; major scholar 1875; fifth wrangler mathematics tripos 1876; fellow 1877; senior bursar 1895; research in optics under James Clerk Maxwell; appointed demonstrator Cavendish Laboratory by Lord Rayleigh 1879; FRS 1882 at the age of 28; assistant director of the Cavendish 1891; principal, University College, Liverpool 1898-1899.

He was appointed first Director of NPL on 1st January 1900, a post he held until September 1919.

Glazebrook carried out important research in aeronautics, notably on conditions of stability, and was subsequently Zaharoff professor of aviation at Imperial College, London 1920-1923. Received the Royal Society Hughes' medal in 1909, the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1918, and the gold medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1933. He was knighted in 1917, received the KCB in 1920 and KCVO in 1934 and was the first president of the Institute of Physics.

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