Edward was educated at Fettes College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital from 1910, obtaining the diplomas of M.R.C.S. (Eng.), L.R.C.P. (Lond.) in 1913. He held the appointment of House Surgeon at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital, and later as a house-physician to Dr Morley Fletcher at St Bartholomew's Hospital until he enlisted into the RAMC. Edward joined the R.A.M.C. on 2nd April 1915, with a commission of Lieutenant, and was attached to the 4th Grenadier Guards the following July. He went to France on 11th August 1915. He was killed at Loos by a shell whilst attending to a wounded soldier by the roadside. His Colonel wrote that "He was one of the many whom we can ill afford to lose, and one who always on all occasions put his duty before himself." Capt Morrison of the 4th Bn. Grenadier Guards wrote that Edward's death was instantaneous and that he had done so extremely well during the battle. Edward was the youngest son of Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton (a consulting physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital) and Louisa Jane Brunton (daughter of the late Ven Edward Adderley-Stopford of Kells, LL.D., Archdeacon of Meath)