Prof Frederick Guthrie FRS FRSE was a British physicist and chemist and academic author. He jointly founded the Physical Society of London (now the Institute of Physics) in 1874, and acted as its first ‘demonstrator’, becoming president from 1884 until his death in 1886. He was Professor of Physics at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, making him one of the Professors asked to advise on new acquisitions for the Science Museum’s early collections in 1882.