When about fifteen years of age, Thomas Adams, then organist of St. Paul's, Deptford, and an intimate friend of the May family, struck by the promise and intelligence of Edward, offered to take him as a pupil.
This offer was, of course, willingly accepted, and for several years he received regular instruction in composition and organ-playing from him.
In 1837 he was appointed organist of Greenwich Hospital, an office he held till the abolition of the institution in 1869.
"[1] At one institution alone, the National Society's Central School, more than a thousand teachers and many more children have been instructed by him.
At Exeter Hall, the Apollonicon rooms, and subsequently St. Martin's Hall, several thousand adults passed through his classes; while, for many years past, he has been the sole musical instructor at the Training Schools, Battersea, St. Mark's, Whitelands, Home and Colonial, and Hockerill; institutions from which upwards of 250 teachers are annually sent forth to elementary schools.