Major-General Edward Robert Festing CB FRS (10 August 1839 – 16 May 1912), English army officer, chemist, and first Director of the Science Museum in London. He contributed to infrared spectroscopy research with Sir William Abney in the 1880s. Festing was born in Frome, Somerset, the son of Richard Grindall Festing and Eliza Mammatt. He was educated at Carshalton and King's College School. He was transferred to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and then "gazetted" as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers at the age of only fifteen.