Edward was the son of Edward Probyn Nares.  He was born in c. 1827 and went into the Royal Navy and became Captain of HMS Reindeer.  All we know of his career at the moment is that on July 9, 1868, he hoisted the British flag on Caroline Island, in the South Pacific. (He reported 27 persons living in the settlement on the southern islet, raising stock, pigs, and poultry; salting fish; and planting coconuts and extracting coconut oil).  The mural below shows the ship arriving at Chemainus Harbour, Vancouver, in 1869.

By 1871 the Reindeer was in Peru under the command of Captain Kennedy, so he must have moved on to pastures new before then.

He married Augusta Frances Law and had one daughter, Agnes Sophia.  He lived in Scarborough, Yorkshire, where he died on 27 April 1879.