Edward Prince Vines was the youngest son of Charles1810 Vines and Mary Eliza Eyre of Reading Berkshire, and grandson of Joshua1780 Vines (1845 will), the youngest son of Edward1725 Vines. He was born at  Reading Berkshire in 1850. Like his father, and brother Frederick Castell Vines he became a doctor of medicine. 

Little is known about his early life, though like his brother he probably came to Australia as a ships surgeon. 

He is mentioned in "A Short History of Tasmania" by Lloyd Robson: 
"In the late 1870s, fever was also notified at the Furneaux Islands (in Bass Strait). First settled in the late 18th century these islands came to be the home of descendants of Tasmanian Aborigines, sealers and some ex-convicts. By the mid-nineteenth century there was an established community on Guncarriage, Woody, Tin Kettle, Cape Barren and Clarke Islands. Mutton birds (shearwaters which come from the Nth Pacific to raise their young in burrows) provided subsistence and a valuable export. Dr E P Vines of Formby on Mersey (Devonport, on the north coast) visited to check the fever and did what he could to encourage cleanliness and fumigation of the houses, in the course of his duties offering interesting comment on the culture of these descendants of the original people of Van Diemans Land."

It is evident that Dr Edward Vines lived for a long period in Tasmania. In May 1899 he arrived at Marble Bar in the NW of West Australia to take up a position as residential Medical Officer for  the State Government. 

Marble Bar is close to the western edge of the Great Sandy Desert. It is named for a bar of red jasper rock across the nearby Coongan River, and is noted as the hottest place in Australia. There was a great heat wave in the NW from 1st Oct 1923 to 1st April 1924, a period of 6 months during which the recorded daily maximum temperature exceeded 100 degrees Fahreinheit (37.8 degrees centigrade) on 161 consecutive days. There were various discoveries of minerals made in the district during the 1890s when an economic depression encouraged a mining boom. 

The town of Marble Bar was established 1893 to provide mining services. A small hospital and doctors residency were built by 1897. Dr Vines became the third or fourth doctor to be appointed, but like his predecessors was not to be there long.

In early September Dr E P Vines went to Braeside Station to attend the confinement of the managers wife, Mrs Hodgson. This station was on the Oakover river, about 130km (80 miles) east of Marble Bar and about 150km south of the ocean at Eighty Mile Beach. The doctor arrived 3 days before the expected birth. The closest white habitation was at Warrawagine Station, 50km (30 miles) further downstream on the river.

Dr Vines died during an attack on the station by Aborigines. The following account of the event written by the new station manager Mr J Tierney soon afterwards to his sister in NSW, was reprinted 37 years later in the "Western Mail" of 18th February 1937.

Braeside Station Sept 12, '99
We have had a dreadful time on this station lately. Braeside is situated 30 miles from Warrawagine Station (where Mr Tierney had been previously) on the Oakover River. The Station was attacked about 3 weeks ago by a tribe of natives who were prepared to kill. They made their attack about four o'clock in the morning. The manager Mr Hodgson, who was sleeping out (on the verandah) was speared in four places, one penetrating just above the heart and coming out just behind the shoulder. Fortunately they did not kill him. Dr Vines an old gentleman who had been only three days on the station, was killed. Dr Vines heard the noise and came out of his room and walked around the verandah to where Mr Hodgson was sleeping. A spear pierced his heart and he staggered to the doorway of a room and died within a few minutes. There was about a foot of the spear sticking out of his chest, and blood splashed on the floor and walls. A valuable dog of Mr Hodgson's was killed after a brave fight to try to drive the natives away.

The blacks were daring and desparate and aimed at doing all the harm they could. A blackboy came over to Warrawagine and told us of the tragedy. We did not lose any time in getting to Braeside (a stockman came with me.) I shall never forget the sight upon our arrival. Dr Vines was lying dead in one room, the spear still in his chest, and Mr Hodgson lying in another wounded and in agony. Blood was splashed on the walls and floor, giving the whole scene a ghastly appearance. We did everything we could to straighten things up and to try to relieve Mr Hodgson.

The next day after my arrival at Braeside Mr Hodgson gave me charge of the station. I have the management until the owners Mr Rodgers and Mr Warberton can get another manager, as Mr Hodgson will not stay here any longer. The day after I came a stockman started with Mr and Mrs Hodgson in a buggy going to Warrawagine. They had gone about halfway when Mrs Hodgson took ill. They stopped for the time being and with no one but her husband and the stockman to attend to her, Mrs Hodgson gave birth to a son. She was made as comfortable as circumstances would permit and in due course they started again and eventually reached the station. They received every attention from Mr and Mrs Thompson. I had a letter today from Mr Thompson that Mr and Mrs Hodgson are recovering and doing as well as can be expected after their very trying ordeal. I had to bury Dr Vines. I made his coffin out of some pine boards I found and a station hand gave me every assistance. I made a lid for the coffin from a sheet of iron. I wrapped him in a sheet, placed him in the coffin and buried him under a tree near the homestead.

Eight days after the burial of Dr Vines a sergeant of police with three of his men and four Nor'-West squatters (settlers) arrived, the doctors body had to be exhumed and an inquest held to find the cause of death. It was a sad scene and I shall not easily forget it. Everything was satisfactory and the poor doctor was reinterred and I suppose will rest for ever in his lonely grave far from his loved ones. Mr Brockman asked me if I would care to remain on Braeside as manager. He said he would get the position for me if I would care to take it. He also congratulated me on my bravery in taking over the station after such a dreadful attack and for the way in which I carried everything out after the murder.

This was the worst attack ever made by the natives in the Nor'-West division. There was not one of the natives shot; nevertheless the murderous wretches will be captured and shot although they have a long start on the police. The party consisting of two police officers, two Warrawagine men sworn in as special police, two trackers from the same station and one tracker from here (Braeside), seven in all, well armed and equipped with seven weeks provisions. I only wish I could have been free to join the party. I hope they capture the wretches and make them pay the penalty for poor Dr Vines death and the trouble and shock they caused Mr and Mrs Hodgson, who acted so bravely during the whole attack. We are all well armed here and a police officer remains with me until the party returns. I am not afraid of an attack but if they do return they will get a wonderfully warm reception.

.....
Written by J Tierney

From the book "Lonely Graves of WA and Burials at Sea."
"The motives for the spearings , by all accounts were that the Hodgsons had handed over Eva a shepherd girl to a station black called Bobby, when she was Dandy Jim's woman, and that the station dogs had been set on the Aboriginals."
There was also conjecture in the district that, because Hodgson had charged natives in court on several occasions with stealing sheep on Braeside, the animosity of the natives had been aroused towards him.

During the inquest Mrs Hodgson said that the Doctor had seized the unloaded gun while she took the revolver. She had offered it to him but he said "No you know better how to use it." She had opened fire when the natives threw a shower of spears at them on the verandah.

It is interesting that Constable Gordon Marshall, officer in charge of the Marble Bar Police Station in the 1930s received a visit from an upstanding well built man who told him that he had been the baby born beside the track and had returned to see the place of his birth. One of the men present at the birth, thinking the newborn babe was dead had placed the infant on the ground and turned his attention back to the mother. While attending her they were surprised by the first unexpected cry from the babe. He had been stung by an ant!