Bingham, Edward Barry Stewart (1881–1939), rear-admiral, RN, was born 26 July 1881 in Bangor Castle, Co. Down, third of seven sons and three daughters of John George Barry Bingham (1852–1916), 5th Baron Clanmorris, landowner, and Matilda Catherine Bingham, daughter and heiress of Robert Edward Ward (1818–1904) of Bangor Castle. He was educated at Arnold House, Llanddulas, Wales, and HMS Britannia at Dartmouth, England, before entering the Royal Navy as a midshipman (1897).
Participating in three of the biggest naval battles of the first world war, he served as lieutenant-commander on HMS Invincible in the battles of Heligoland Bight (1914), and the Falkland Islands (1914), and was promoted commander (1914) and subsequently placed in charge of the Hornet (1915–16). Mentioned in despatches, he was awarded the VC (gazetted 15 September 1916) for his gallantry at the battle of Jutland (31 May 1916): when commanding the Nestor he led his division and attacked an enemy flotilla, sinking two destroyers, and then, followed by one remaining destroyer and under heavy fire, he closed to within 3,000 yds (2,743 m) of the enemy fleet to gain a favourable position for firing torpedoes. The Nestor was sunk and he was rescued by a German ship. As a prisoner of war in Germany (1916–18), he gave lectures which became the basis of his memoir Falklands, Jutland and the Bight (1919), which he described as ‘a plain, unabashed narrative’ of his own experiences, avoiding technicalities; ‘a sailor's yarn . . . for readers of all types and tastes’ (Bingham, 17, 19). He was awarded an OBE (1917) and the Russian Order of St Stanislaus.
After his release, he was promoted captain and held a number of important commands including the admiralty yacht Enchantress, the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, reserve ships at the Nore and at Devonport, and the battleship Resolution in the Mediterranean. He served as chief of staff in the Nore command (1927–9), and was appointed ADC to King George V; promoted rear-admiral (1932), he retired aged 51. A fine amateur jockey, he won many races in different parts of the world and captained a successful navy polo team at Malta. His elder brother, Arthur Maurice Robert Bingham (1879–1960), served in the Boer war (1899–1902), winning the queen's medal and the king's medal, was appointed captain of the 5th Lancers and ADC to the governor general of New Zealand (1904–7), and succeeded as 6th Baron Clanmorris (1916). Bingham lived at Evershot, Dorset, died 24 September 1939 in London, and was cremated. He married (1915) Vera Temple-Patterson; they had a son and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1937.