[1][2] He was born in Nayland, Suffolk, the eldest son of Dr. Edward Liveing (1795–1843)[3] and Catherine Mary Downing (1798-1872).
[5] He was a Fellow of the college until he married in 1860 but he retained his lectureship there until 1865 and in 1911 was elected as its President, a position that he held until his death in 1924.
Following the death of James Cumming in 1861, Liveing was elected to the 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge University, at an initial salary of £100 per annum and from 1860 to 1880 he held additional posts at the Staff College, Camberley and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst as Professor of Chemistry.
[6] [7] Liveing collaborated with James Dewar, who was Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Cambridge from 1875 to 1923.
He died on Boxing Day 1924, aged 97, as the result of being knocked down by a cyclist while walking to his laboratory.