Edward Irvine Halliday was born on 7 October 1902 in
Garston,
Liverpool, to James Halliday and Violet Irvine. He first attended
Liverpool College of Art. Halliday continued his studies and attended life drawing classes at
Académie Colarossi (1922–1923), the
Royal College of Art (1923–1925), and the
British School at Rome (1925–1928). He was awarded the
Prix de Rome for Decorative Painting in 1925. He established himself as a portrait artist with his work,
Lord Darling (1928). During
World War II, Halliday served in the
Royal Air Force in
Bomber Command. After the war in 1948, he received a painting commission for a portrait of
Princess Elizabeth from the
Drapers' Company of London. This was the start of many more royal portrait commissions. Other sitters for Halliday's portraits included
Winston Churchill,
Edmund Hillary,
Lord Denning,
Lord Widgery,
Louis Gluckstein,
Robert Stopford, Lord Hunt,
Frank Whittle,
Malcolm Sargent,
Leon Goossens,
Beryl Grey,
Gladys Cooper,
Wally Hammond,
Brian Johnston, and
Ben Travers. In 1967 he was commissioned to paint the retirement portrait of Derek R Wigram, Headmaster of
Monkton Combe School, which hangs in the school's dining hall. Halliday had two arts series radio programs,
Artists at Work (1932) and
Design in Modern Life (1934). The success of these radio programmes led to further radio and television work. In the 1950s, Halliday was the voice behind the BBC
Television Newsreel. == Death and legacy ==