William de Wiveleslie Abney was an English astronomer, chemist and photographer born in Derby, England on 24 July, 1843.

The son of Edward Abney, vicar of St Alkmund's Derby and owner of the Firs Estate, William attended Rossall School, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and joined the Royal Engineers in 1861, with whom he served in India for several years. Thereafter, and to further his knowledge in photography, he became a chemical assistant at the Chatham School of Military Engineering.

Drawing influences from his father, who was an early photographic experimenter and his friend of Richard Keene, an early Derby photographer, Abney became a pioneer of several technical aspects of photography. Keene became a close friend of William and his brother Charles Edward Abney. Both the Abney sons subsequently became founder members of the Derby Photographic Society in June 1884. His endeavors in the chemistry of photography produced useful photographic products and also developments in astronomy. He wrote many books on photography that were considered standard texts at the time, although he was doubtful that his improvements would have a great impact on the subject. His introduction of silver gelatin citrochloride emulsions led to the mass marketing of printing-out paper. He was a prolific author, writing for both specialist practitioners and amateurs. It was Abney who was largely instrumental in establishing a photographic collection at the South Kensington Museum, later to become the Science Museum Collection and form the basis of the National Museum of Photography, Bradford.

Abney joined the Royal Photographic Society in 1870, was elected a Fellow in 1876, and served as President in 1892-1894, 1896, and 1903-1905. In 1874 he was charged with directing the photographic observation of the transit of Venus in Egypt, and established the expedition's observatory in Luxor. During this expedition photographs were also taken of the Egyptian monuments around Thebes. Abney's book, Thebes and its Five Great Temples, was published in 1876. In 1880, he introduced hydroquinone. Abney also introduced new and useful types of photographic paper, including in 1882 a formula for gelatin silver chloride paper.

William also conducted early research into the field of spectroscopy, developing a red-sensitive emulsion which was used for the infrared spectra of organic molecules. He was also a pioneer in photographing the infrared solar spectrum (1887), as well as researching sunlight in the medium of the atmosphere.

He became the assistant secretary to the Board of Education in 1899 and advisor to that body in 1903. He sold his father’s estate, most of which went for housing in the St Luke's Parish of Derby, but retained 11 acres until 1913 when they were purchased by the Council to become the site of Rykneld Secondary Modern School and Rykneld recreation ground.

Abney was the inventor of the "Topographic Abney Level", a combined clinometer and spirit level, used by surveyors to measure slopes and angles.

Sir William died in Folkestone, England on 3 December, 1920.