His school fellows included the headmaster's grandson Henry William Brewer, later a notable architectural illustrator, the clinician and physiologist Sydney Ringer and the orientalist Professor Robert Lubbock Bensly.

[3] Boardman trained as an architect with the London-based company Lucas Brothers and was later articled with John Louth Clemence of Lowestoft.

Outside of the city, he was responsible for the remodelling of Peckover House in Wisbech, the enlargement of Coltishall Primary School and in 1873, the building of the Dereham's Congregational Church are among his most notable works.

[6] The younger Edward's sister in law Ethel Colman was the first female Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1923.

[7] One of Boardman's daughters, Ethel Marion, married Percy Jewson, who was Lord Mayor of Norwich 1934-35[8] and National Liberal MP for Great Yarmouth 1941–45,[9]