Edward Cairns Officer (19 September 1871 â 7 July 1921) was an Australian artist and the inaugural president of the Australian Art Association.
Officer was born in 1871 at Murray Downs, New South Wales, near Swan Hill, Victoria. He studied art under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery of Victoria and studied at Julien's in Paris, in 1895. In 1908, he married Grace, daughter of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald.
Unable to enlist to serve in World War I, Officer organised the sale of 95 of his paintings netting ã800 for the Red Cross Fund.
He died at Macedon, Victoria, on 7 July 1921.