Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala
Field Marshal Robert Cornelis Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala GCB GCSI FRS (6 December 1810 – 14 January 1890) was a British Indian Army officer. He fought in the First Anglo-Sikh War and the Second Anglo-Sikh War before seeing action as chief engineer during the second relief of Lucknow in March 1858 during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He also served in the Second Opium War as commander of the 2nd division of the expeditionary force which took part in the Battle of Taku Forts, the surrender of Peking's Anting Gate and the entry to Peking in 1860. He subsequently led the punitive expedition to Abyssinia in July 1867, defeating the Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia with minimal loss of life among his own forces and rescuing the hostages of Tewodros.
The Lord Napier of Magdala
Robert Cornelis Napier
6 December 1810
Colombo, British Ceylon
14 January 1890 (aged 79)
London, England, UK
1828–1890
Military career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Born the son of Major Charles Frederick Napier, who was wounded at the storming of Meester Cornelis (now Jatinegara) in Java on (26 August 1810) and died some months later, and Catherine Napier (née Carrington), Napier was educated at Addiscombe Military Seminary before being commissioned into the Bengal Engineers on 15 December 1826.[1] He attended the Royal Engineer Establishment at Chatham with the rank of ensign from 7 June 1827[2] before being promoted to lieutenant on 28 September 1827 and being sent to India in November 1828.[3] After commanding a company at Delhi, he was employed in the irrigation works of the Public Works Department until 1836 when he returned to England for leave on account of his poor health.[3] Promoted to captain on 25 January 1841, he was appointed garrison engineer at Sirhind in 1842.[3]
First Anglo-Sikh War[edit]
Napier served under Sir Hugh Gough during the First Anglo-Sikh War and commanded the Bengal Engineers at the Battle of Mudki in December 1845.[3] He was severely wounded at the Battle of Ferozeshah in December 1845 while storming the Sikh camp and was also present at the Battle of Sobraon in February 1846.[3] Promoted to brevet major on 3 April 1846,[4] he was chief engineer at the siege of the fortress of Kote Kangra in the Punjab by Brigadier-General Wheeler in May 1846.[3]
Second Anglo-Sikh War[edit]
Having been appointed as consulting engineer to the Punjab resident and to the Council of Regency of the Punjab, Napier was called to direct the siege of Multan in September 1848 at the outset of the Second Anglo-Sikh War.[3] He was wounded during the siege but managed to recover sufficiently to be present at the successful storming of Multan in January 1849 and at the surrender of the fortress of Chiniot shortly thereafter.[1] He took part in the Battle of Gujrat in February 1849 and accompanied Sir Walter Gilbert as he pursued the Sikhs all the way to Rawalpindi and was present at the surrender ceremony of the Sikh Army.[1] He was promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 7 June 1849[5] and became chief engineer to the Board of Administration of Punjab Province at the end of the War.[3]
North-West Frontier[edit]
In December 1852 Napier took command of a column in the first Hazara expedition,[a] and in November 1853 against the Afridis on the North-West frontier.[1] He crushed the Afridi Pashtun rebellion in the North-West Frontier Province and was promoted to the brevet rank of colonel on 28 November 1854 and the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel on 15 April 1856.[3]
China[edit]
In January 1860, during the Second Opium War, Napier assumed command of the 2nd Division of the expeditionary force under Sir James Hope Grant. In the Battle of Taku Forts he led the assault on the main northern fort on 21 August 1860[1] where he counted six bullet holes in his clothing and equipment.[6] The Anting Gate in Peking was surrendered to Napier on 13 October 1860[7] and he was responsible for protecting Lord Elgin's line of march into Peking on 24 October 1860.[8] He was promoted to brevet major-general on 15 February 1861[9] and to the substantive rank of colonel on 18 February 1861.[10]
Napier became the military member of the Council of the Governor-General of India in 1861, acting for a short while as Governor-General after the sudden death of Lord Elgin.[1] He assumed command of the Bombay Army with the local rank of lieutenant general on 7 February 1865[11] and received promotion to the substantive rank of lieutenant-general on 1 March 1867[12] before taking command of the punitive expedition to Abyssinia July 1867.[6]
Later career[edit]
Napier became Commander-in-Chief, India, with the local rank of full general in April 1870,[25] and having been promoted to the substantive rank of full general on 1 April 1874,[26] he became Governor of Gibraltar in June 1876.[27] In February 1878, however, he was recalled to London and appointed to command an expeditionary force which was being prepared in anticipation of a war with Russia.[1] When war did not break out he returned to his duties in Gibraltar. In November 1879 he represented Queen Victoria at Madrid as ambassador extraordinary upon the occasion of Alfonso XII of Spain's second marriage and in December 1879 he became a member of the Royal Commission on the organization of the army.[1] Standing down as Governor of Gibraltar,[28] he was promoted to field marshal on 1 January 1883.[29]
Napier was also honorary colonel of the 3rd London Rifle Volunteer Corps[30] and colonel-commandant of the Royal Engineers.[31] In January 1887 he was appointed Constable of the Tower of London.[32]
Napier died of influenza at his residence in London on 14 January 1890. He was given a state funeral and buried in St Paul's Cathedral on 21 January 1890.[1][33]
Legacy[edit]
In 1883 the British government installed one Armstrong 100 ton gun in a battery in Gibraltar that they named the Napier of Magdala Battery[34] and in 1891 a statue of Napier on horseback by Sir Joseph Boehm was unveiled in front of Carlton House Gardens in London: it was moved to Queen's Gate, Kensington in 1920.[35]
The descendants of the Third City of London Rifle Volunteer Corps are located within Napier House Army Reserve Centre, Grove Park, London; the building is named in his honour.[36]
Napier's honours included: