Born in Purton Court, Purton, Cricklade, Wiltshire on 27 July 1909, Edward Bickford was the son of Oscar Leonard Bickford and Edith Bickford.  In June 1927, Midshipman Edward Bickford (seniority 1 May 1927) was serving in the Battleship HMS VALIANT, to which he had been appointed on 15 September 1926.  0n 29 March 1929 he was appointed to the Battleship HMS MALAYA, all part of his training as a naval officer.

Promoted Sub Lieutenant on 1 March 1930, Bickford was appointed to HMS DOLPHIN for the Submarine Course on 5 January 1931. On completion, he joined HMS L27 (2nd Submarine Flotilla) as Third Hand and Navigator on 24 April 1931 and was further promoted to Lieutenant on 1 June.  He served in HMS THAMES as Navigator from 28 May 1932, then in HMS H34 as the First Lieutenant from 3 April 1934. He went on to serve in three more submarines as First Lieutenant (Second-in-Command) – H33 from 4 September 1934, HMS SEVERN and HMS ODIN from 28 February 1936. Edward Bickford then successfully completed his Commanding Officers Qualifying Course from 25 April 1938.  He subsequently joined HMS SALMON, in Command, on 6 August 1938.

Promotion to Lieutenant Commander followed on 1 June 1939.  Still in command of HMS SALMON, Edward Bickford was the first Royal Navy submariner to sink a U-Boat in WW2, U-36 (Wilhelm Frolich) in the North Sea southwest of Stavanger on 4 December 1939.  On 13 December 1939, he also sighted and attacked the German Cruisers LEIPZIG and NURNBERG and hit both ships with the same salvo of torpedoes, one hit on each Ship.  For these actions he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) – see London Gazette dated 23 December 1939 – and was promoted early to Commander.  The citation read ‘Lieutenant Commander Bickford was in command of HMS SALMON during a brilliant War Patrol in which she succeeded in totally destroying an enemy Submarine and torpedoing at least one enemy Cruiser’.

HMS SALMON left Rosyth for a patrol off Skudesnes (southwest coast of Norway) on 4 July 1940. She was sent a signal on 12 July 1940 with instructions to return to harbour.  HMS SALMON was declared overdue on 16 July 1940 and was subsequently assumed to have been lost with all hands.  Later it was realised that an earlier signal to SALMON had routed her across a minefield which was, at the time of her passage, unknown to the Admiralty.

Edward Bickford was the husband of Valerie Bickford (née Courtney) of Thatch Cottage, Hook Park, Warsash, Hampshire.  He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval War Memorial on Panel No 36 Column No 3.