Edward was born in September 1884 at Inverkip Cottage. He was one of nine children of Michael and Isabella Denny who were married in Ireland. One child, John, died in 1878 aged less than 12 months old.

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On the 1891 census, the family were living at Jamieson's Land, Inverkip but later moved to Ardgowan Place, Main Street.

In 1902, his sister Mary Jane died in Inverkip, aged 19.

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Edward's attestation form of 1908 for the territorial force shows his occupation as platelayer on the Caledonian Railway, the same occupation as his father.

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On the 1911 Inverkip census, Edward was living with his parents and three of his siblings at Ardgowan Place. Edward served in the 1st/5th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders where he first saw action in the Dardenelles, then Egypt and finally France.

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He is remembered at Oulchy-Le-Chateau Churchyard Extension, Aisne, on the memorial in Glasgow Central Station to those lost in the war who worked on the Caledonian Railway and on the Inverkip War Memorial.

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Edward's father died in February 1918 in Broadstone Hospital, Port Glasgow, 6 months before his son, of a fractured skull resulting from a railway accident. His mother died at Jack Place, Inverkip in 1927.