Edward D’Arcy McCrea was born in Dublin, Ireland on 22 December 1896.

Edward was an international tennis competitor. He won his first tournament, the County Dublin Championships, in 1919. He won two singles titles at the 1920 Eas of Ireland Champions and the County of Dublin meeting.

Edward competed in the 1921 Irish Championships but was knocked out in the semi-finals. Following this, he travelled to Scarborough, Yorkshire to take part in the North of England Championships, losing in the final to South African Brian Norton.

1922 saw Edward head to Spain to take part in the Barcelona International Tournament on clay courts where he progressed to the semis. He returned home to win the East of Ireland Championships for a second time.

Edward then competed in the Derbyshire Championships in England which he also won. He defended the Derbyshire Championship title the following year but lost the 1923 North of England Championship final against Sydney Jacob.

A period of semi-retirement followed. Edward did not take part in many tournaments for four years, returning to take part in the 1927 Irish Championships and the Northern England Championships in Manchester, of which he won the latter singles title. In 1928, he played his final tournament at the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships where Edward exited at the quarter-finals stage.

Outside of tennis, Edward studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1920. He became a Master of Surgery in 1922 and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
He moved to Manchester where he worked at Salford Royal Hospital. Edward also taught physiology at the University of Manchester.

Edward was killed on 22 December 1940 in the Manchester Blitz. He was hosting a dinner party at his home in Salford when a Luftwaffe parachute mine hit the house. The explosion killed all of the occupants.