Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Nesbitt was born in London in February 1845 and commissioned into the 33rd Regiment as an Ensign in September 1865. Advanced to Lieutenant in July 1867, he served in Abyssinia between November of the same year and June 1868, and was present at the storming of Magdala. Over the course of the next 20 years he saw service in the East Indies on three occasions and was promoted to Captain in September 1874 and to Major in July 1881. Nesbitt transferred to the 2nd Battalion, afterwards the 76th Regiment, in the late 1880s, and following a brief sojourn in Bermuda took it to Halifax, Nova Scotia and thence to the West Indies. Advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in March 1890, he assumed command of the Battalion in April 1893, his final overseas appointment being in South Africa.