Edgar de Wahl
grew up in Saint Petersburg. He began studying at the  Gymnasium in Saint Petersburg, graduating in 1886. He then studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Saint Petersburg and architecture and painting at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. While at university, de Wahl joined the Baltic German  operating in St. Petersburg, where he served as treasurer in the autumn term of 1891. De Wahl graduated in 1891 and in 1893 received a diploma as a teacher of drawing at the Elementary School of the Academy of Arts. De Wahl worked briefly as a substitute teacher in Saint Petersburg in the autumn of 1891, before entering the navy.