Major-General Edward Robert Festing CB FRS (10 August 1839[1] – 16 May 1912), English army officer, chemist, and first Director of the Science Museum in London.
With Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney (also a graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich), Festing studied the infrared absorption spectra of a number of organic and inorganic chemical compounds.
[7] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1900 New Year Honours list on 1 January 1900[8] (the order was gazetted on 16 January 1900),[9] and he was invested by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 1 March 1900.
[10] He was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery[11] His grave has no headstone or marker.
[3][12] He had a son, Richard Arthur Grindall Festing, who worked for the Civil Service in Ceylon.