George Strong Nares

George Strong Nares
Captain (later Admiral Sir) George Strong Nares
Born	24 April 1831 (1831-04-24) Llansenseld, near Abergavenny
Died	15 January 1915 (1915-01-16) (aged 83) Kingston upon Thames, Surrey
Buried at	Long Ditton churchyard
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1845–1886
Rank	Lieutenant (1854) Commander (1862) Captain (December 1869) Rear-admiral (retired list) (1887) Vice-admiral (retired list) (1892)
Unit	HMS Canopus HMS Havannah HMS Resolute HMS Conqueror HMS Illustrious HMS Britannia
Commands held	HMS Boscawen HMS Salamander HMS Newport HMS Shearwater HMS Challenger HMS Alert British Arctic Expedition
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society (1875) Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1876) Founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1877) Gold medal from Société de Géographie (1879)
Other work	Harbour department of the Board of Trade (1879 - 1896) Acting Conservator of the River Mersey (1896 - 1910)

Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares KCB FRS (24 April 1831 – 15 January 1915) was a British naval officer and Arctic explorer. He commanded the first ship to pass through the Suez Canal, the Challenger Expedition and the British Arctic Expedition. He was highly thought of as a leader and scientific explorer. In later life he worked for the Board of Trade and as Acting Conservator of the River Mersey, and died in 1915 aged 83.

He was born on 24 April 1831, the third son and sixth child of Commander William Henry Nares, a British naval officer, and Elizabeth Rebecca Gould, at Llansenseld, near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire. He was baptised at the church of St Bridget, Llansanffraid on 22 May. He married Mary Grant, the eldest daughter of a Portsmouth banker, on 22 June 1858. They had four sons and six daughters. His two youngest sons, George Edward Nares (lieutenant, d. 1905) and John Dodd Nares (vice-admiral, d. 1957) entered the Royal Navy.

He was educated at the Royal Naval School in New Cross, and in 1845 joined the Royal Navy aboard Canopus, an old battleship captured from the French. Following a posting to Havannah on the Australian station in 1848 during which he served as both midshipman and mate, he returned in 1851 and passed his lieutenant's exam in 1852.

While returning to England in Havannah in 1851, Nares had met Commander George Henry Richards, a future Hydrographer of the Navy, who had suggested he apply to Sir Edward Belcher for a place on his search for Sir John Franklin. Nares was accepted as the second mate of Resolute, and thus gained valuable early experience of the Arctic during the 1852-1854 expedition.