He lived at Neath, Glamorgan, and was a Deputy Lieutenant of Glamorgan and a large land owner in the Vale Neath. He also had a residence in Falmouth.
He died on 1 April 1929 at the age of 66.
Extract from the Western Morning News dated Tuesday, 10 December 1929
Col. J. E. Vaughan, Flushing.
Colonel John Edwards Vaughan, J.P., D.L., of Rheola, near Neath, Glamorgan, and of Cliff Cottage, Flushing, Falmouth, who served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the Burmah Campaign of 1887 and in the South African War, and who died on March 30, last aged 65, son of the late Col. Vaughan Hanning Vaughan-Lee, M/P/, D.L., J.P., of Dillington Park, Somerset, who served in the Crimean War, left unsettled property of the gross value of £18,792, with net personalty £10,019.
Probate of the will, dated October 22, 1927, has been granted to his widow, Mrs Alice Elizabeth Vaughan, of Rheola; John Nash Edwards Vaughan, of Rheola, son of the deceased; and Jonah Arnold, of Great Western Chambers, Neath, estate agent; and Charles Joseph Clayton Wilson, of Temple-Street, Swansea, solicitor.
Testator left £300 and certain household effects to his wife; £50 to his daughter, Doris Elizabeth Shuldham; £50 to Lucinda Ellen Ashe; £50 to his nephew and godson, Gerald Hanning Vaughan-Lee.
One year's salary to his mineral surveyor, Harry Morgan, if acting in that capacity at his death;
Six month's wages to each indoor servant of one year's service;
£150 in addition to Hannah Rowlands "who has nursed me faithfully and well";
£50 to his gardener, William Crofts;
£50 to his chauffeur, George Ballard;
£50 to William Sydney Bevan, skipper of his yacht "for though he let me down badly over my last cruise in the s.s. Sheila he has served me very faithfully for a great number of years";
£300 to Jonah Arnold; £50 to Frederick G. Arnold; and the residue of the property he left to his son, John Nash Edwards Vaughan
The total value of his estate (£18,792) only refers to his unsettled property. His settled land amounted to an additional £109,272.