Sir Edmund Langley Hirst CBE FRS[1] FRSE (21 July 1898 – 29 October 1975), was a British chemist.

In World War I he was conscripted in 1917, and persuaded the authorities to return him to the University of St Andrews to study mustard gas.

His proposers were James Pickering Kendall, Edmund Percival, Thomas Robert Bolam and David Bain.

[6] In 1973, Hirst developed Hodgkin's disease, and his health gradually deteriorated until his death in Edinburgh on 29 October 1975.

In addition they synthesised authentic mono-, di- and tri-methyl ethers of arabinose, xylose, fucose, fructose, mannuronic, galacturonic and glucuronic acids.