George Goudie Chisholm was born in Edinburgh on 1 May 1850. He was educated at the city's Royal High School, and studied at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated MA in 1870. He had a gift for languages and was able to function in Latin, Greek, French, German and Italian. He started out on a literary career working in the editorial department of publishers W.G. Blackie & Son (Glasgow).

Chisholm left for London in 1881, and apart from taking the degree of B.Sc. in Natural Sciences in Edinburgh in 1883, London was to be his home until 1908. Specialising in Geography, he became a University Extension Lecturer, and established for himself a solid reputation in the subject. With the setting up of a Lectureship in Geography at Edinburgh University in 1908, Chisholm was the obvious choice. He became Reader in 1921. His first geographical work was The two hemispheres (1882). Around the same time, the Royal Geographical Society had come to realise that Geography was badly neglected in Britain in comparison to European countries, both in the universities and in schools. Chisolm however was already prepared for the task of advancing the status of the subject. A series of school geographies was prepared, and a school atlas. Other more ambitious works were Handbook of commercial geography (1889), and Gazetteer of the world (1895) which later became known as The Times gazetteer.

Chisholm retired from Edinburgh University in 1923. He had long been the Secretary of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

George Goudie Chisholm died in Edinburgh on 9 February 1930.