[1][2] Called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1929, he worked as examiner and lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1930 and 1931.

During the Second World War, he served in the Army Officers' Emergency Reserve and in the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

He was knighted in 1958 (becoming Sir Edmund Davies)[3] when the Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir appointed him a High Court Judge of the Queen's Bench Division (as Mr Justice Edmund Davies), a post he held until 1966.

His report was published in July 1978 and recommended a substantial increase in pay for police officers – of the order of 45 per cent.

His recommendations were implemented in full in 1979 by the incoming Conservative Government, and the essential elements of the Edmund-Davies pay regime have remained undisturbed ever since.