Edmund Nicholas Poland was born on 19 February 1917, the son of Raymond Poland and Frances Olive Poland (née Weston, later Bayly-Jones). He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He married Pauline Ruth Margaret Pechell in 1941, with whom he had three sons and two daughters.

He joined the Royal Navy and served during the Abyssinian and Palestine crises and the Spanish Civil War. During the Second World War, he undertook convoy duties in Norwegian waters and served with motor torpedo boats in the Channel and the Mediterranean. He was Staff Officer (Operations) to the Naval Force Commander, Burma [later Myanmar]. He served in HMS Royalist and HMS Hornet, 1946, and was Flotilla Torpedo and Anti-Submarine Officer of Third Submarine Flotilla in HMS Montclare.

He was promoted Commander and joined the Air Warfare Division of the Admiralty, 1950, and the British Naval Staff in Washington, 1953. He attended the Joint Services Staff College, Latimer, 1955. He worked in the Directorate of Tactics and Ship Requirements at the Admiralty; commanded the Royal Naval Air Station, Abbotsinch, 1956; and was a member of the NATO Standing Group in Washington. He was promoted Captain, 1956. He was Director of Under Sea Warfare (Naval) at the Ministry of Defence, 1962, and Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, 1965-8. He was promoted Rear-Admiral, 1965.

He retired from the Navy in 1968.

He was awarded the CBE, 1962, and the CB, 1967.

His publications include: "The Torpedomen" (1992) and "Majumba's Survival" (1992).