Constituency : Pembroke 1874-80 ; Cardiff 1880-95 , 1900-06
Edward gained the hitherto Tory seat of Pembroke.
Edward was a shipwright's son from Kent. He started out as a naval apprentice and entered the School of Mathematics and Naval Construction at Portsmouth. After a time editing the Mechanic's Magazine he became the Admiralty's Chief Constructor overseeing the transition from wooden to ironclad warships. He resigned after Parliament decided to fund a ship built by his rival Captain Coles which foundered in less than a year. He was not recalled and instead built ships for other nations. In 1873 he contested a by-election at Hull where he owned a large naval engineering firm but was unsuccessful.
Edward was a frequent contributor to debates on naval matters. In 1879 Edward visited Japan on a trade mission to secure orders for warships and wrote a sympathetic history of the country on his return. He felt the country should not be rushed towards full democracy by Western governments.
Edward switched to Cardiff in 1880. In 1886 he became a whip in Gladstone's brief ministry.
In the 1880s Edward became a substantial railroad magnate in Florida.
Though he stuck with Gladstone he was never enthusiastic about Home Rule and in 1892 The Spectator complained that he was hedging his support with so many conditions that he may as well be considered an opponent. His Irish constituents denounced him.
Edward was defeated in 1895 which at least in private he welcomed with relief "I am like a lark or a nightingale that somehow found itself tethered awhile by some bramble hooked to its foot & having got clear of it, has sailed up into the beautiful blue above ,& there began to let the heavens know that it has a singing soul still".
Nevertheless he stood again in 1900 and regained the seat. He announced his retirement in 1905 when suffering with a heart complaint.
He died in 1906 aged 76.
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