- Edward Divers
Edward Divers, F.R.S. was born on
November 27 1837 , and died onApril 8 1912 at his home inKensington ,London ,England .Divers received his early education at the
City of London School and theRoyal College of Chemistry . In 1854, he was appointed as teaching assistant and demonstrator at Queen's College,Galway , where he studiedmedicine , one of the few scientific degrees then available inIreland ; he was awarded the M.D. degree in 1860.For the next six years Divers carried on in a quiet medical practice and gave public lectures on chemistry related topics in the Galway region. With ambition and opportunity limited in the west of Ireland, Divers left for England and in 1870 and he was appointed lecturer in
Medical Jurisprudence at the Middlesex Hospital School.On the recommendation of
A. W. Williamson Divers left forJapan in 1873 to become Professor of Chemistry at theImperial College of Engineering inToranomon . He became Principal of the College in 1882. Edward Divers was the first British chemist to go to Japan, where he immediately set about building laboratories on the Liebig and Hofmann models. His dedication to research now became paramount, even after a test-tube explosion in 1885 robbed him of sight in his right eye.As 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.He became President of the Chemical Section of the
British Association in 1902. In 1905 he served as vice president of theInstitute of Chemistry and President of theSociety of Chemical Industry .Divers was married in 1865 to Margaret Theresa Fitzgerald.
Sources
*
The Times , Wednesday, April 10, 1912; page 9; Issue 39869; col B.
* William J. Davis, ‘Divers, Edward (1837–1912)’, "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ",Oxford University Press , 2004.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
