Edward James Bedford

Rear-Admiral Edward James Bedford (18 August 1810 – 1 July 1887) was a Royal Navy officer noted for his work as a surveyor, particularly in Scotland.

Bedford was the second son of Lieutenant Frederick Bedford, R.N. He entered the Navy in February 1824. His first assignment was with HMS Snap under the command of Lieutenant Frederick Bullock. Snap was surveying the coast of Newfoundland, determining the precise positions of the many headlands that had been well charted by James Cook, but without the aid of chronometers. He was then with HMS Alert and in South America and the Pacific. The coloured fair chart of his survey of Loch Awe (1861) was singled out by John Washington, Hydrographer of the Navy as "one of the most beautiful ever sent in".

Bedford was transferred to in 1864, working on the west coasts of Britain. He compiled the Sailing Directions for the Bristol Channel, first published in 1869. He retired in 1870, and was promoted to Rear Admiral in the retired list in 1878. He was married to Miss Swainson, of Liverpool, by whom he left a family. He died on 1 July 1877.