- Born 20 December 1892, Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island, Canada
- 5th of 8 children of the Rev. Thomas Corbett (1848 – 1926). His mother Agnes Harriet Crowe (1857 – 1906) from Truro, Nova Scotia died when Percy was 13
- BA 1913 and MA 1915 at McGill Univ., Montreal
- War service 1916-18 Western Front. 13th Highlanders of Montreal, 27th Battalion Canadian Army
- Military Cross awarded for bravery as a scout
- Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford 1919 – 22
- Fellow All Souls College, Oxford to 1927
- Married Margaret Irene Morison (born November 1892, died 1980) in Canada in 1921 before returning to Oxford. Two children with Margaret, David Charles and Helen.
- Legal Officer in International Labour Office, The League of Nations, Geneva
- Returned to McGill University Faculty of Law in 1924, served as Dean of the Faculty of Law from 1928 to 1936, and briefly as acting principal of the University
- 1938 Honorary Doctorate, Melbourne University, Australia
- 1943 moved to Yale University as Chair, Department of Political Science, and professor of government and jurisprudence, taking out American citizenship around 48
- 1951 to 58 Corbett joined the Centre of International Studies at Princeton. He also lectured at The Hague, 1954; California, 1956; New Delhi, 1958-59
- Wrote or co-authored 9 books from 1930 to 1978
Died at Derby Line, Vermont, 24 October 1983
Corbett Family - view from Australia 