Edward Marsh (polymath)

Sir Edward Howard Marsh KCVO CB CMG (18 November 1872[1] – 13 January 1953) was a British polymath, translator, arts patron and civil servant.

In his career as a civil servant he worked as private secretary to a succession of the United Kingdom's most powerful ministers, particularly Winston Churchill.

Marsh was educated at Westminster School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge,[1] where he studied classics under Arthur Woollgar Verrall.

[7] In 1931, he won a literary contest with a new stanza for Paradise Lost, which repairs the omission of how "Adam and Eve Brush Their Teeth".

An edited collection of letters, Ambrosia and Small Beer, appeared in 1964, recording two decades of correspondence with his friend and biographer, Christopher Hassall.

Marsh was also a consistent collector and supporter of the works of the avant-garde artists Mark Gertler, Duncan Grant, David Bomberg and Paul Nash, all of whom were also associated with the Bloomsbury Group.