Edward "Ted" Alfred Orlando Stroud was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England in early 1893.

He was the son of Edward Stroud (b. 1867), a mariner, and Caroline Louisa Vaughn (b. 1867), Southampton-natives who had married in 1886.

Edward was one of five children, his siblings being: Winifred Gertrude Vaughn (1887-1953), Florence Ethel Vaughn (1891-1890), Joseph Leonard (1898-1971) and Cecil Frederick (1901-1973).

Edward appears only on the 1901 census. At the time he and his family were living at 86 Oxford Avenue, St Mary, Southampton, his seafaring father being absent from the household. Edward would himself go to sea and when the 1911 census was conducted he would be absent from the family home, his parents and siblings listed as living at 120 Malmesbury Road, Shirley.

When he signed-on to the Titanic, on 4 April 1912, he gave his address as 120 Malmesbury Road, (Southampton). His last ship had been the St Paul. As a second class steward he received monthly wages of £3, 15s.

Also aboard was Harry John Stroud, Edward's paternal first cousin, who was also a second class steward on the Titanic.

Both men died in the sinking. Their bodies, if recovered, were never identified.

Ted's mother received financial aid of 3s 0d per week from the Mansion House Titanic Relief Fund. The following in memoriam appeared in the Hampshire Independent (17 April 1915):

His father later died in 1940 and his mother in 1944.