Versatile artist and teacher, born in Tottenham, north London, his father a railway ticket collector. Edward early showed artistic talent and was encouraged by his domineering mother, who inadvisedly termed him “the boy genius”, to pursue it as a career. He attended the Slade School of Fine Art, 1929–30, with a Slade Scholarship, where he gained his teaching diploma with honours and a first-class prize for drawing plus awards for history of art. At the Royal Academy Schools, 1930–2, he won the Landseer Scholarship and was a first-class silver medallist for life painting. He also studied art history under Roger Fry, Cambridge University, and sculpture with Henry Moore. Taught widely from 1933, including Beckenham, Wimbledon and Sidcup Schools of Art and Medway and Rochester, Maidstone and Hornsey Art Colleges.