Edward Barrow was an Engine Room Artificer in the Royal Navy. He married Margaret (Maggie) Cowan in 1915 in Hull. In early 1919 he was assigned to HMS Titania and the 4th Submarine Flotilla. He sailed to Hong Kong with HMS Titania on the voyage to Hong Kong. Not long after that, he left the Royal Navy and settled in Hong Kong. His wife Maggie came out to Hong Kong to join him. At first Edward worked for an engineering company in Causeway Bay. Then, in 1921, the China Light and Power Company opened its new power station in Hung Hom. Edward joined the staff of CLP and worked at Hung Hom until December 1937, when he and Maggie, being anxious about the threat of war, left Hong Kong aboard the German ocean liner SS Scharnhorst, and returned to England.