Constituency : East Denbighshire 1906-10, Norfolk North West 1912-18, Crewe 1922-4 ( Labour )
Edward took over at East Denbighshire from Samuel Moss who resigned to become a County Court judge. Lloyd George supported his campaign.
Edward was the son of a bank manager. He was educated at Winchester College and Oxford. He was a successful rower. He became a barrister. He contested Winchester in 1900 and Shrewsbury in 1906.
Edward was a supporter of the taxation of land values. He had labour sympathies and supported payment of MPs.
In 1909 Edward was appointed Recorder of Liverpool and easily won the resultant by-election. That same year he was saved from bankruptcy by a whip-round organised by Horatio Bottomley.
In December 1910 Edward vacated East Denbighshire to try and unseat Charles Beresford at Portsmouth. The local party were unhappy at the time Edward was spending on his legal practice ( in 1907 he had spent weeks on a case in Jamaica ) and his parsimony in funding the constituency organisation. He wrote to his constituency chairman Edward Hughes , "It is quite obvious that you yourself have no idea of the strain upon a busy barrister. You constantly suggest my presence at functions which are nothing to do with serious political work". He had been largely absent during the January 1910 campaign. It was rumoured also that the Whips' Office had offered to pay his outstanding debts. His departure from East Denbighshire unleashed a torrent of abuse from both parties Hughes accused him of snobbery, meanness, hypocrisy and self-interest.
Edward was unsuccessful at Portsmouth, coming in third.
Edward wanted to contest Keighley in 1911 but Elibank installed Stanley Buckmaster instead. This was particularly galling for Edward as he expected Buckmaster to become Solicitor-General, a post he coveted himself and for which he felt he was better qualified.
Edward came back in for North West Norfolk in 1912 .Hughes tried to sabotage his candidature but Lloyd George congratulated him and gave him a seat on his Land Enquiry committee.
Edward was regarded as an Asquithian loyalist but then backed the government in the Maurice Debate. He was invited to Downing Street and, he claimed, promised government endorsement for the election at King's Lynn . However the coupon went to the Conservative instead. Edward angrily withdrew and campaigned for the Labour candidate who was narrowly defeated.
Edward defected to Labour in 1920 and was elected for Crewe in 1922, unseating the Coalition Liberal, Joseph Davies. He hoped for office in 1923 given Labour's lack of lawyers but bad publicity arising from Edward's trying to wriggle out of an old debt probably cost him an appointment.
Edward's last speech was in defence of the Attorney-General over the Campbell affair. He appealed to "my old friends on the Liberal benches" not to throw over the government on a trifle or they would rue the day. He was right about that but he too went down in 1924. The Liberals did not enter the contest and Hughes wrote to his opposite number urging them to support the Tory to get rid of Edward.
Edward wrote a number of plays which are forgotten today. One was The Butterfly On The Wheel which was actually mainly the work of his colleague Francis Neilson. Neilson later recorded that "ever since Hemmerde had claimed half authorship and half fees in the plays, my wife and children regarded him as a very unpleasant person.
In later years Edward had a running battle with the Tory-led Liverpool Corporation who he felt would not accord him his due prominence at civic events.
He died in 1948 aged 77.
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