George Nares

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.

Family

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.

Education and early service in the Royal Navy

George Nares (judge)

Sir George Nares (1716–1786) was an English barrister, judge, and politician.

Life

Born at Hanwell, Middlesex, he was the younger son of George Nares of Albury, Oxfordshire, steward to the Earl of Abingdon; James Nares was his elder brother. He was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, was admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 19 October 1738, and was called to the bar on 12 June 1741.

Nares practised in the criminal courts, and defended Elizabeth Canning, charged with perjury, in April 1754. He received the degree of the coif on 6 February 1759, and in the same year was appointed one of the king's serjeants. He was employed as one of the counsel for the crown in several of the cases arising out of the seizure in 1763 of issue No. 45 of The North Briton. At the general election in March 1768 he was returned to the House of Commons for Oxford, of which he was already recorder. He spoke in favour of Lord Barrington's motion for the expulsion of John Wilkes on 3 February 1769.