Edwin grew up an only child in Maidstone, Kent, where he attended the local Grammar School. His father was a civil servant, responsible for the administration of the large local prison.
Edwin studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford in the mid-1930s and encountered The Oxford Group there. One effect was that he decided to stop drinking alcoholic drinks as he felt that he had the sort of personality which might cause him to become alcohol-dependent. His father was not over-joyed about the turn his life was taking, asking him whether he might not serve God just as well in a more conventional way.
Upon graduating, Edwin set off to the University of Toulouse to do further studies. However, the break-out of hostilities cut this short and he spent five years in the British Army as an anti-aircraft gunner. Most of his time was spent on remote airfields and he hardly ever saw an enemy plane.
Once demobbed, he felt a call to education. He based at Tirley Garth, the MRA centre in Cheshire for a short while and then found a job teaching in a secondary school in Ardwick, Manchester. It was at Tirley Garth that he met his wife-to-be, Leonora Lee, who was a primary school teacher in nearby Stockport. They were married in 1949 and spent the rest of their married life in Manchester, eventually ending up teaching in the same school, although considerably expanded, in Ardwick.
Edwin had a passionate belief in the value of education and was the founding editor of a broadsheet called Polestar which promoted education and in particular the fundamental moral and spiritual beliefs of MRA. The editorial board, all volunteers, included a variety of educational professionals such as Dr Elizabeth Bradburn, a lecturer at an education college in Liverpool, and John Scarth, a secondary-school teacher in Wythenshawe, Manchester. David Hassell, a modern-language teacher, was another active participant as was Dermot Mackay, who came from a tea-planting family in Sri Lanka and had a printing background. These and several others, the ‘staff’ of Polestar, formed a close association with French MRA colleagues in education – in particular Jacques and Denise Jaulmes. Edwin was passionate about the importance of such links, traveling to France several times with Leonora to attend meetings of l’Association pour l'Eveil à la Responsabilité à l’Ecole (Association for the Awakening to Responsibility at School or AERE) of which Denise Jaulmes was the chief organiser for 30 years.
As well as teaching, Edwin was deeply involved in the National Union of Teachers, sometimes attending their annual conferences. He held office for several years in the Manchester branch – the Manchester Teachers’ Association. In the year in which he was President of the MTA, he invited the international cricketer Conrad Hunte to address the annual dinner.
Writing in New World News, Edwin summed up his conviction: ‘Education is the task of everyone. It is a process of changing the thinking and living of individuals and nations. It is a process which should not cease for any of us and to which every one of us can contribute.’
He was still active with Polestar in the year in which he died at the age of 75.
