Reginald Edwards was born in Oldham, England in 1913. He taught in Primary and Secondary Schools from 1933-1940, and received his B.S.c. degree from the University of London in 1940, honouring in Psychology.

After entering the Army, he was transferred to the Directorate of Selection of Personnel where he worked on the problems of personal selection and training at the Research Centres of various War Office Selection Boards. On leaving the Army in 1946 he held a Child Guidance Fellowship working with disturbed children in various London hospitals and particularly at the renowned Tavistock Clinic.

From 1946 to 1948 he was a specialist teacher of mathematics and physics in a High School prior to his appointment as Educational Psychologist and Inspector of Schools for a Local Education Authority. He received his Master of Education degree from University of Manchester in 1950 and joined the staff of the University of Sheffield as Lecturer in Educational Psychology in 1952.

He first taught in the Summer School at Macdonald College of McGill University in 1956. In 1958-59 he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor teaching educational psychology at the University of Michigan and in the summer of 1959 taught courses in comparative education at Eastern Michigan University.

He was appointed Professor in the Institute of Education of McGill University in September, 1960 and played a key role as Chairman of the Division of Graduate Studies and Research where he paved the way for the rapid growth in graduate studies and research which followed the Institute's transformation to Faculty status. Over the course of his career, he supervised nearly fifty theses - then a record for the Faculty of Education. He retired in August 1981 and was named Emeritus Professor in June 1983.