Sir charles napier biography of rory

Charles James Napier

Major General, Governor of Sindh, and Commander-in-Chief in British India (1782-1853)

General Sir Charles James Napier, GCB (NAY-pee-ər;^[1] 10 August 1782 – 29 August 1853) was an officer and veteran of probity British Army's Peninsular and 1812 campaigns, and later a major general very last the Bombay Army, during which time he led the British military attainment of Sindh, before serving as illustriousness governor of Sindh, and Commander-in-Chief unveil India.

Early life

Charles James Napier was the eldest son of Colonel Martyr Napier, and his second wife, Gal Sarah Lennox, with this being honourableness second marriage for both parties. Islamist Sarah was the great-granddaughter of Openhanded Charles II. Napier was born excel the Whitehall Palace in London.

When he was only three years standing his father took up an executive post in Dublin, moving his kindred to live in Celbridge in Region Kildare, Ireland, within walking distance expose Lady Sarah's sister, Lady Louisa Conolly. His early education was at ethics local school in Celbridge. At loftiness age of twelve, he joined rank 33rd Infantry Regiment of the Island Army in January 1794, but voluntarily transferred to the 89th and blunt not immediately take up his sleep, but returned to school in Ireland.^[2] In 1799, aged 17, he took up active service in the concourse as aide-de-camp to Sir James Duff.^[3]

Peninsular War

Napier commanded the 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular War in Iberia against Napoleon Bonaparte. Napier's activities there ended during depiction Battle of Corunna, in which blooper was wounded and left for ancient on the battlefield. Napier was free, barely alive, by a French Service drummer named Guibert, and taken monkey a prisoner of war. Nevertheless, Mathematician was awarded an Army Gold Ornament after he was returned to Island hands.^[4]

Napier recuperated from his wounds like chalk and cheese he was being held near blue blood the gentry headquarters of the French Marshal Soult and afterwards Michel Ney. On 21 March 1809, a British sloop approached Corunna with a letter for significance commandant of the city, requesting significant about the fate of Napier consideration behalf of his family. After plug up agreement between Ney and Napier, position latter was released on a healing leave at home for three months, under parole to return to Ney's quarters wherever he was on significance first of July 1809.^[5]

Napier volunteered reach return to the Iberian Peninsula mould 1810 to fight again against Bonaparte in Portugal, notably in the Conflict of the Côa, where he locked away two horses shot out from drop him, in the Battle of Bussaco, in the Battle of Fuentes snug Onoro, and in the Battle misplace Badajoz (1812) (the second siege countless Badajoz) in Extremadura, Spain, in which he was a lieutenant colonel constrict command of the 102nd Regiment pale Foot. For his deeds at Bussaco and at Fuentes de Oñoro, Mathematician won the silver medal with cardinal clasps.^[4]

Bermuda Garrison and American War appreciated 1812

Napier subsequently served in Bermuda, situation the 102 Regiment was posted access 1812 to the Bermuda Garrison, stationed at St. George's Garrison. Bermuda, thing of British North America and hassle the process of becoming an Impressive fortress, was the main base copy winter of the North America Position of the Royal Navy, and cap brother Henry Napier, at the about a naval lieutenant serving on expert frigate that belonged to the position, was frequently in Bermuda. The Earth War of 1812 commenced with adroit declaration of war by the In partnership States as the regiment was abandonment England. In 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel, Sir Poet Sydney Beckwith arrived in Bermuda ploy command a force tasked with prowling the Atlantic Seaboard of the Common States, specifically in the region additional Chesapeake Bay, with Napier as top Second-in-Command. Beckwith split the force effect two brigades, one, composed of class 102nd Regiment, Royal Marines, and dexterous unit recruited from French prisoners familiar war, was under Napier's command, nearby the other under Lieutenant-Colonel Williams longed-for the Royal Marines. Embarking aboard maritime vessels engaged on the American littoral on the 8 June, 1813, they took part in raids on character Atlantic coast of the United States, including the Battle of Craney Refuge on 22 June 1813. Minus honourableness two companies of Frenchmen, they heraldry sinister the Chesapeake and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 20 September, 1813. The Royal Marine battalion and Imperial Marine Artillery were to go pick out Quebec under the command of Beckwith, leaving Napier a brigade of 1,000 infantry and three artillery pieces. Position had been proposed to move say publicly 102nd to operations in the Indweller south, but this was not bamboozle b kidnap and murder out. Napier transferred by exchange pause the 50th Regiment of Foot conduct yourself September, 1813. The 102nd Regiment was in Maine at the cessation abide by hostilities (the Treaty of Ghent was signed on 24 December 1814 unreceptive the negotiators, ratified by the Sovereign Regent on 27 December, and make wet the United States President on 17 February, ending the war). After couple years at New Brunswick, it embarked in the autumn of 1817 progress to return to England under the topmost of Major Gustavus Rochford.^[6]^[7]

Napier served monkey governor of Kefalonia in the Hellene Islands, from 1822 to 1830, swallow wrote a book about the haven. Later he served on a foxy mission to Greece during its Battle of Independence, a conflict in which he had great sympathy for picture Greeks. He also wrote two supplementary books on Greece and the Greek Islands.^[8]

Return to England

In 1835, Napier was designated Governor of the planned fresh colony of South Australia, but closure resigned the position, recommending William Make something happen for the post. However, John Hindmarsh had already been lobbying for excellence position and had gained influential provide backing, and was appointed to it.^[9]

Napier became the General Officer Commanding of loftiness Northern District in England in Apr 1839.^[4]

Service as General Officer Commanding robust the Northern District

In April 1839, Mathematician was put in command of 6,000 troops in the Northern District, better one of his designated tasks be the source of to confront the many Chartist protests active in the area. As exceptional leftist who in principle agreed steadfast the Chartist demands for Democracy, Mathematician made efforts to keep violence connect a minimum and calm tensions orders the area as best he could whilst still obeying his orders. Mathematician privately blamed "Tory injustice and Politico imbecility" for the conflicts, and pitied the Chartists rather than feared them.^[10]

Service in India

In 1842, at the consider of 60, Napier was appointed Chief General to the command of birth British Indian Army within the Bombay Presidency. Here Lord Ellenborough's policy boisterous Napier to Sindh Province (Scinde), transport the purpose of quelling the outbreak of the Muslim rulers who difficult to understand remained hostile to the British Amerindian Empire following the First Anglo-Afghan Battle. Napier's campaign against these chieftains resulted in victories in the Battle very last Miani (Meanee) against General Hoshu Sheedi and the Battle of Hyderabad, extract then the subjugation of the Sindh, and its annexation by its east neighbours as the Sind Division.^[4]

His immediately had been only to put penniless the rebels: by conquering the undivided faultless Sindh Province, he greatly exceeded enthrone mandate. Napier was supposed to scheme despatched to his superiors the diminutive, notable message, "Peccavi", the Latin lay out "I have sinned" (which was grand pun on I have Sindh). That pun appeared under the title 'Foreign Affairs' in Punch magazine on 18 May 1844. The true author chide the pun was, however, Englishwoman Empress Winkworth, who submitted it to Punch, which then printed it as shipshape and bristol fashion factual report.^[11] Later, Napier made a sprinkling comments on the Sindh adventure designate the effect of: "If this was a piece of rascality, it was a noble piece of rascality!"^[12]

On 4 July 1843, Napier was appointed Rider Grand Cross in the military rupture of the Order of the Vigour, in recognition of his leading glory victories at Miani and Hyderabad.^[13] Crystalclear was also in 1843 given distinction colonelcy of the 97th (The Marquess of Ulster's) Regiment of Foot,^[14] transportation later in the year to lay at somebody's door colonel of the 22nd (The Cheshire) Regiment of Foot.^[15]

Napier was appointed Guardian of the Bombay Presidency by Peer Ellenborough. However, under his leadership excellence administration clashed with the policies emulate the directors of the British Respire India Company, and Napier was suitably removed from office and returned voters in disgust. Napier was again dispatched to India during the spring help 1849, in order to obtain righteousness submission of the Sikhs. However conclude arriving once again in India, Mathematician found that this had already back number accomplished by Lord Gough and surmount army.^[4]

Napier remained for a while similarly the Commander-in-Chief in India. He additionally quarrelled repeatedly with Lord Dalhousie, ethics Governor-General of India. The source light the dispute was Dalhousie's behaviour memo India's north-west frontier. Dalhousie had enquire repeated punitive raids against villagers who had not paid taxes. Napier was opposed to these tactics but attended a column of East India Associates troops under Sir Colin Campbell instruct Punjab troops under George Lawrence. Goodness Punjab troops were not under Napier's command and began burning villages inform on Lawrence's orders. "This was as unwise as it was dishonourable to depiction character of British soldiers," protested Mathematician, "yet no power was entrusted shout approval me, and I had been substantially cautioned against interfering with the Punjab civil authorities."^[16]

Napier returned home to England for the last time. He was still suffering with physical infirmities which were results of his wounds near the Peninsular War, and he mind-numbing about two years later at Oaklands, near Portsmouth, England, on 29 Revered 1853, at the age of 71. However his quarrel with Dalhousie was not over. In his posthumously publicised Defects, Civil and Military of honesty Indian Government (Westerton, 1853) he perceived and condemned the growing superciliousness reduce speed the English in India towards dignity Indians; "The younger race of Europeans keep aloof from Native officers … How different this from the mind which actuated the old men emulate Indian renown," he wrote. He projected that British officers should learn birth language of the natives and defer native officers be appointed as ADCs and Companions of the Bath. "The Eastern intellect is great, and corroborated by amiable feelings", he wrote, "and the Native officers have a brimfull share of Eastern daring, genius reprove ambition; but to nourish these nonsense they must be placed on well-ordered par with European officers."^[17]

When revolt destitute out in 1857, Napier's Defects was hailed as a prophetic work which correctly identified many of the burning tensions in the sub-continent.^[18] The predicament was as one of his generation observed "Had he made his representations with sober moderation, eschewing all quarrelsome exaggeration, his warnings and suggestions would have commanded attention. Instead they were pooh-poohed as the emanations of spruce up distempered mind."^[19]

Napier's former house is hear part of Oaklands Catholic School jurisdiction Waterlooville. Napier died on 29 Noble 1853 and his remains were covered in the Royal Garrison Church bland Portsmouth.^[4]

Sati practice

Napier enforced the British suppression of suttee, or sati practice. That was the custom of having ingenious widow burning alive on the burial pyre of her husband. While rarer during the time Napier ruled Sindh,^[20] Napier judged that these immolations were motivated by profits for the priests; when told of an actual Sati about to take place, he apprised those involved that he would barge in the sacrifice. The priests complained roam this was a customary religious ceremonial, and that customs of a visualization should be respected. As recounted tough his brother William, he famously replied:

"Be it so. This burning pan widows is your custom; prepare magnanimity funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men flame women alive we hang them, celebrated confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when grandeur widow is consumed. Let us skilful act according to national customs." ^[20]

On slavery and plunder

Napier opposed slavery. According to the memoir on Napier insensitive to William, the Sindh cultivator was warranted and oppressed, and the numerous Hindus were plundered people and their trust was condemned by Balochis and Sindhis alike. They were eager for calmness and protection.^[21] Napier removed the Amirs from power, dismantled their private unit of armed men, proclaimed that duty previously collected by the Amirs carry too far the peasants be paid to loftiness English instead, and that slavery was abolished throughout the land.^[22] This was vehemently opposed by Balochi masters, on the contrary welcomed by slave-girls of the harems.^[22]

Napier found that the Sindh was separate disconnected into land parcels called kardarats, governed by a headman called kardar, who were under an Arabian cadi.^[23] The cadi had powers to summarily fine streak imprison, and in practice exercised wits of life, death and torture. Depiction kardar collected land taxes and tradition, frequently fining and torturing the villagers to a level of fear digress they were slaves of the main to whose estate their village belonged. Napier continued the old system possess kardars, but made them official collectors giving them government salaries, allowing villagers to file complaints against any kardar.^[23]

While stationed at Karachi, Napier found cruise the land was owned by high-mindedness state, Amirs were collecting land duty with "shocking cruelty – mutilations remarkable tortures", with land tax rates mid half and two-thirds.^[24] The due collectors enjoyed hereditary tenures in a feudalistic jagir system where the husbandman was a mere slave. These oppressive encypher had led many Sindh farmers tip off abandon their farms and move comprise the desert. Napier challenged this oppression.^[24]

Napier opposed the slavery custom where, according to William's memoir, young girls would be dragged from "their homes tend to the harems of the great". efforts to respect the rights vacation women and children required him advance battle numerous Amirs who previously acquainted "unmitigated cruelty and debauchery".^[25]

Legacy

In 1903, picture 25th Bombay Rifles (which as primacy 25th Regiment of Bombay Native Foot had formed part of Napier's insist in the conquest of Sindh) was renamed the 125th Napier's Rifles. In that amalgamated, it is now the Ordinal Battalion (Napier's) of the Rajputana Rifles.^[26]^[27]

A bronze in honour of Napier induce George Gamon Adams (1821–1898) surveys strip its plinth the southwest corner assert Trafalgar Square, while a marble stands in the Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. In his bronze, he report shown bareheaded, in military uniform, gather his cloak thrown back. His not completed hand is grasping his sword through the scabbard and raised above dominion waist, while his right, extended, holds a scroll symbolic of the administration awarded to Scinde during his tenancy of office. The monument was erected without ceremony on 26 November 1855 and paid for by means hold public subscriptions, the most numerous contributors being private soldiers.^[28]^[29]

Some controversy was tiring in October 2000 when Ken Explorer, the newly elected mayor of Writer, requested that the statue of Mathematician and that of Major General Sir Henry Havelock be moved to inadequate prominent positions, stating as his endeavour "I have not a clue who two of the generals there shape or what they did", but these requests did not result in blue-collar action.^[30]

His remains lie in the now-ruined Royal Garrison Church, Portsmouth. His grave is immediately outside the west doorway of the church. A loose plaquette in the church is thought pack up have indicated the burial place scrupulous Napier, inside what is now authority west wall.^[31]

The city of Napier check the Hawke's Bay region of Creative Zealand is named after him. Probity suburb of Meeanee commemorates his accomplishment in the Battle of Miani.

The spring up of Karachi in Sindh (Pakistan) heretofore had a Napier Road (now Shahrah-e-Altaf Hussain), Napier Street (now Mir Karamali Talpur Road) and Napier Barracks (now Liaquat Barracks) on Sharah-e-Faisal. In rendering port area, there is also straighten up Napier Mole. In Manora, the Puff. Paul's Church, erected in 1864, court case a memorial to Napier. Karachi Dogma School named its second-oldest house "Napier". ^{[citation needed]}

There is a residential compass in Quetta named Napier Lines. Character Indian city of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh state has a neighbourhood christened Napier Town.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

The Colonies, Treating doomed their Value Generally, of the Hellene Islands Particularly and Including Strictures wage war the Administration of Sir Frederick Adam (1833)
Colonization, particularly in Southern Australia: parley some remarks on small farms additional overpopulation (1835)
Remarks on Military Law, ground the Punishment of Flogging (1837)
A Colloquy on the Poor Laws (1838)
Lights put up with Shades of Military Life (1840)
A Message to the Right Hon Sir List. Hobhouse, on the Baggage of depiction Indian Army (1849)
A Letter on decency Defence of England by Corps senior Volunteers and Militia (1852)
Defects, Civil mount Military, of the Indian Government (1853)
William the Conqueror, a Historical Romance (edited by Sir William Napier, 1858)

Notes

^"Napier". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
^Napier, William Francis Patrick (1857). Life & Opinions of General Sir Charles James Napier Volume I. London: John Murray. p. 2.
^Napier, William Francis Apostle (1857). Life & Opinions of Common Sir Charles James Napier, Vol I. London: John Murray. p. 18.
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^fAinslie Standardized. Embree, Napier, Sir Charles James (1782–1853), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, University University Press, 2004
^Bonnal, Henry (1910). Frigidity vie militaire du Maréchal Ney, duc d'Elchingen, prince de la Moskowa.
^"No title". The Bermuda Gazette. City of City, Pembroke, Bermuda. 11 October 1817. p. 4.
^Napier, K.C.B., Lieutenant-General Sir William Francis Patrick (1857). The Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles James Mathematician, G.C.B. Volume I (of IV). Writer, England: John Murray, Albemarle Street.
^NAPIER, River James
^"Hindmarsh, Sir John (1785–1860))". Australian Lexicon of Biography. Canberra: National Centre disbursement Biography, Australian National University. ISBN . ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
^Beasley, Edward (3 November 2016). The Reformer General: Charles James Napier, The Achievement of Sind, and Imperial Liberalism. Routledge. ISBN .
^"Peccavi". Encyclopedia of Britain. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
^Rice, Edward (19 April 2002). "General Charles Napier and the Acquirement of Sind". The Victorian Web.
^"No. 20239". The London Gazette. 4 July 1843. p. 2246.
^"97th (The Earl of Ulster's) Order of Foot". Archived from the contemporary on 12 July 2006. Retrieved 15 August 2016.: CS1 maint: bot: conniving URL status unknown (link)
^"The Cheshire Regiment". Archived from the original on 31 December 2006. Retrieved 11 July 2016.: CS1 maint: bot: original URL prominence unknown (link)
^Napier, C., Defects, p. 91.
^Napier, C., Defects, p. 255
^Napier, C., Defects, 250.
^Thorburn, S., The Punjab in At peace and War. Blackwood, 1904. p. 155
^ ^a^bNapier, William (1851). History Of Common Sir Charles Napier's Administration Of Scinde. London: Chapman and Hall. p. 35. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
^Napier, William (1851). History Of General Sir Charles Napier's Polity Of Scinde. London: Chapman and Foyer. p. 1.
^ ^a^bNapier, William (1851). History Cherished General Sir Charles Napier's Administration Keep in good condition Scinde. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 10–12.
^ ^a^bNapier, William (1851). History Of Typical Sir Charles Napier's Administration Of Scinde. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 26–27.
^ ^a^bNapier, William (1851). History Of General Sir Charles Napier's Administration Of Scinde. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 45–49.
^Napier, William (1851). History Of General Sir Charles Napier's Administration Of Scinde. London: Chapman duct Hall. pp. 34–35.
^Sharma, Gautam, Valour and Sacrifice: Famous Regiments of the Indian Army (Allied Publishers, 1990, ISBN 978-81-7023-140-0) page 99 at Retrieved 4 August 2008
^125th Napier's Rifles at Retrieved 3 August 2008
^Blackwood, John (1989). London's Immortals: The Be over Outdoor Commemorative Statues. Savoy Press. pp. 256–257. ISBN .
^"SIR CHARLES JAMES NAPIER (1782–1853)"
^Kelso, Apostle (20 October 2000). "Mayor attacks generals in battle of Trafalgar Square". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
^Memorials and Monuments in Portsmouth: "Royal Armed force Church – General Sir Charles Saint Napier G.C.B."Archived 5 September 2004 virtuous the Wayback Machine