Dr Edward Divers M.D. D.S.c. F.R.S. was born in 1837, he died on April 8th 1912 at his home in Kensington.

Divers had a varied education at the City of London School, the Royal College of Chemistry and Queens College Galway. In 1870 he was appointed lecturer in Medical Jurisprudence at the Middlesex Hospital School. Sensing opportunity elsewhere left for Japan in 1873 to become Professor of Chemistry at the Imperial College of Engineering. He became Principal of the College in 1882. When Emeritus Professor of Chemistry he received the second class order of the Scared Treasure and Third Class of the Order of the Rising Sun, President of the Chemical Society 1900-1902.

President of the Chemical Section of the British Association in 1902. In 1905 he served as vice president of the Institute of Chemistry and President of the Society of Chemical Industry. Married in 1865 to Margaret Theresa Fitzgerald.