Directories
> Misc Directories
 Dictionary of Indian Biography (Buckland) |
|
 Dictionary of Indian Biography M to R
| Date transcribed | 2011-08-00 | | Transcribed by | Peter Bailey | | Comment | Note that notables of Indian, Afghan, etc. origin do not always follow the alphabetical name patterns established by Buckland in his original work. |
| | Surname | Napier | | | First Name(s) | Charles James | | | Titles, Honours, etc. | Sir | | | Birth Year | 1782 | | | Death Year | 1853 | | | Entry | Born Aug. 10, 1782 : son of Col. the Hon. George Napier : entered the 33rd regt., 1794 : educated at Celbridge : A.D.C. to Sir James Duff, 1799 : and to General H. E. Fox, 1803, both in Ireland: commanded the 50th under Moore in Spain, 1808 : taken prisoner at Corunna in the Peninsula : engaged against the United States, 1813 : against Napoleon. 1815 : C.B. : studied at the Military College. Farnham, 1815-7 : resident of Cephalonia, 1822-30 : friend of Byron : declined to be Commander of the Greeks : Maj-General, 1837 : K.C.B., 1838 : commanded the N. district, 1839 : kept Chartism under : to India in 1841 : advised Ellenborough on the military policy, 1842 : took command in Sind in 1842 : offered the Amirs a fresh treaty : occupied their fortress of Imamghar in Dec. 1842 : fought and won the battle of Miani on Feb. 17, 1843, with 2,200 men against 22,000 : and beat Shir Muhammad, the Lion of Mirpur, at Dubba, near Hyderabad, March 24, 1843, finally at Shahdulpur, on June 14, routing him to the hills : controversy arose between Napier and (Sir James) Outram (q.v.) about the necessity for the conquest of Sind and the question of the treatment of the Amirs : Napier organized the new government of the province, and received the submission of the Chiefs in 1844 : G.C.B., 1843 : defeated the hill tribes on the N. frontier of Sind, 1844-5 : assembled an Army at Rohri, 1846, but was not engaged in the Satlaj campaign of 1845-6: Lt-General, 1846 : resigned the government of Sind, 1847 : named by Wellington! for the military command in India after Chilianwala : the Court of Directors objected, but yielded to the public demand for Napier : he arrived in India after the conclusion of the Panjab campaign, 1849 : C. in C. in India, May 7, 1849, to Dec. 6, 1850 : suppressed a mutiny in a native regiment : he suspended, on his own responsibility, a Government Regulation on the subject of compensation allowance to the Native Army : the Governor- General, Lord Dalhousie, expressing his disapprobation, Napier resigned and went home : died Aug. 29, 1853 : on his statue in St. Paul's Cathedral are the words "" A prescient general, a beneficent governor, a just man "" : another statue is in Trafalgar Square, London : wrote on the Defects, Civil and Military, of the Indian Government, and various papers on military subjects, the colonies and miscellaneous literature : his despatches and civil work attracted as high praise as his military achievements : he had heroic qualities, and was both loved and detested. |
| |
<< first
< previous
next >
last >>
|
|
A List of eminent persons who served in British India, together with short biographical notes of each
|
Search Births & Baptisms
text size
