Divers had two great misfortunes while staying in Japan. One was the sudden death of his son Frederic, which occurred in China, where he was in the service of the Maritime Customs. The other was death, in Tokyo in 1897, of his wife, Margaret Theresa Fitzgerald, whom he married in 1865. After this loss, Divers never seemed to be in the best of spirits, and this fact, combined with his advancing age and isolation, led him to return to England in 1899. He was much respected in Japan, particularly by Itō Hirobumi, who, in the early days of the Engineering College, was the Minister of Public Works, and thus came in frequent contact with Divers. The contribution of Divers to education was recognised by the Japanese government, which, in 1886, conferred upon him the Order of the Rising Sun of the Third Class, in 1898, the Order of the Sacred Treasure of the Second Class. He was further an Honorary Member of the Tokyo Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical Industry of Japan, and the Engineering Society, the last of which was established by students of Divers at the Engineering College. On leaving Japan in 1899, Tokyo Imperial University conferred upon him the title of Professor Emeritus. A memorial bust of Divers was erected in the university grounds on 17 November 1900.