Edward Melcarth

Edward Melcarth, was born as Edward Epstein in Louisville, Kentucky to Eva Epstein and Edward "Eddie" Epstein Sr., a wealthy Jewish family. His grandfather was a noted distiller and liquor dealer, Hilmar Ehrmann and he was the nephew of Herbert B. Ehrmann and Sara R. Ehrmann. After his father died in February 1920, his mother, whose family discouraged her from becoming an opera singer, remarried to Sir Reginald Mitchell Banks, KC, and Member of Parliament for Swindon, in 1926. Eva and Edward then moved to the U.K. to live with Reginald, and Edward spent the next decade in Europe.