Sir Edgar J.Harper (1860-1934), Chief Valuer to Inland Revenue 1911-25

Harper, Sir Edgar Josiah (1860–1934), land valuer and civil servant, was born on 15 January 1860 at 11 Beaumont Square, Mile End, London, the third son of Henry Harper, a merchant's clerk, and his wife, Mary Ann, née Burletson (b. 1826?). He was educated privately in Bexley Heath. Effectively a self-made man, Harper showed an early aptitude for statistics. Beginning at the age of eighteen as a clerk in the architect's department at the Metropolitan Board of Works, he progressed rapidly to become an assistant valuer in the estate and valuation department. While employed in that position he married on 8 September 1887 Jessie Anne Wood (1844–1927), the daughter of Hugh Wood and Jessie McKinnon, and sister of Thomas McKinnon Wood (1855–1927), who became leader of the Progressive Party on the London county council (LCC), secretary for Scotland in 1912, and financial secretary to the Treasury during the First World War.