[3][4] He represented the UK and competed in the 100 and 200 m 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, winning bronze medals in both events.

Invited to compete at Yankee Stadium in New York City, Edward emigrated to the United States in 1923.

Settling in New York after some time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he participated in the Harlem Renaissance and its political and cultural milieu.

It was rediscovered among his papers by British writer and filmmaker Neil Duncanson in the 21st century, and edited by him for publication by Yale University Press in 2024.

As a youth, his father had left the poverty of the colony of Dominica by working as a ship's cabin boy and crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Brought up and educated in Germany, by his teen years he spoke German, French, and English.

An extensive community with different cultural events developed in the camp: theatre, music, a branch of the Royal Horticultural Society and other organizations.

[3] In June 1914, when Edward was 16, he competed in an athletics meeting held in the Berlin stadium built for the 1916 Olympics.

In 1923 Edward was invited to compete at New York City's Yankee Stadium, so he emigrated to the USA for its opportunities.

In 1936 his group produced the first staging of Macbeth with a black cast; it was directed by John Houseman and Orson Welles.

[3] During the Second World War Edward worked for the Office of Price Administration and organized rationing.

[3] When the war ended, he worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and was sent to Greece.

They include his memoir When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black, which was effectively lost for decades.

The memoir was rediscovered in the Edward papers by Neil Duncanson, a British writer and documentary filmmaker, in the course of research for another book on 100 meter winners.