CHARLES JAMES NAPIER
1782-1853
| 1782. | Born in London, August 10. |
| 1794. | Commission in 33rd Regiment. |
| 1800. | At Shorncliffe with Sir John Moore. |
| 1809. | Wounded and prisoner at Coruña. |
| 1810-11. | Peninsula War: Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro, &c. Lieut.-Colonel, 1811. |
| 1812-13. | Bermuda and American War. |
| 1815-17. | Military College at Farnham. |
| 1820. | Corfu. |
| 1822-30. | Cephalonia. |
| 1835. | Living quietly in France and England. |
| 1837. | Major-General. |
| 1838. | K.C.B. |
| 1839. | Command in North of England. Chartist agitation. |
| 1841. | Command in India at Poona. |
| 1842-7. | War and organization in Sind. |
| 1849-50. | Commander-in-Chief in India. |
| 1853. | Died at Oaklands, near Portsmouth, August 29. |
SIR CHARLES NAPIER, G.C.B.
Soldier
The famous Napier brothers, Charles, George, and William, came of no mean parentage. Their father, Colonel the Hon. George Napier, of a distinguished Scotch family, was remarkable alike for physical strength and mental ability. In the fervour of his admiration his son Charles relates how he could 'take a pewter quart and squeeze it flat in his hand like a bit of paper'. In height 6 feet 3 inches, in person very handsome, he won the admiration of others besides his sons. He had served in the American war, but his later years were passed in organizing work, and he showed conspicuous honesty and ability in dealing with Irish military accounts. One of his reforms was the abolition of all fees in his office, by which he reduced his own salary from £20,000 to £600 per annum, emulating the more famous act of the elder Pitt as Paymaster-general half a century before. Their mother, Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, had been a reigning toast in 1760. She had even been courted by George III, and might have been handed down to history as the mother of princes. In her old age she was more proud to be the mother of heroes; and her letters still exist, written in the period of the great wars, to show how a British mother could combine the Spartan ideal with the tenderest personal affection.
sir charles napier
From the drawing by Edwin Williams in the National Portrait Gallery
Their father's appointment involved residence in Ireland from 1785 onwards, and the boys passed their early years at Celbridge in the neighbourhood of Dublin. Here they were far from the usual amusements and society of the time, but they were fortunate in their home circle and in the character of their servants, and they learnt to cherish the ancient legends of Ireland and to pick up everything that could feed their innate love of adventure and romance. Close to their doors lived an old woman named Molly Dunne, who claimed to be one hundred and thirty-five years of age, and who was ready to fill the children's ears with tales of past tragedies whenever they came to see her. Sir William Napier tells us how she was 'tall, gaunt, and with high sharp lineaments, her eyes fixed in their huge orbs, and her tongue discoursing of bloody times: she was wondrous for the young and fearful for the aged'.