Edward John Gregory was born in Southampton in 1850. He was grandson of John Gregory, engineer-in-chief of Sir John Franklin’s last Arctic expedition, and was eldest child of a ship’s engineer.  He had set his mind upon being a painter. Making the acquaintance at Southampton of Hubert von Herkomer, whose family had settled there, he started a life-class with him. 

In 1869, Gregory and von Herkomer went to London, to study at the South Kensington Art School and the Royal Academy. He was soon employed to paint wall decorations for the new Victoria and Albert Museum.  In 1871, with his friends Herkomer and Robert Walker Macbeth, he began working for illustrated newspaper The Graphic. Gregory became a successful portrait painter and later served as president of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists until his death in 1914.