NAPIER, SIR WILLIAM FRANCIS PATRICK ( 186o), British soldier and military historian, third son of Colonel George Napier (1751-1804), was born at Celbridge, near Dublin, on Dec. 17, 1735. He became an ensign in the Royal Irish Artil lery in i800, but at once exchanged into the 62nd, and was put on half-pay in 1802. He afterwards became a cornet in the Blues, but he soon exchanged into the 52nd, which was about to be trained at Shorncliffe. Through Sir John Moore he soon obtained a company in the 43rd, joined that regiment at Shorncliffe and became a favourite with Moore. He served in Denmark, and was present at the engagement of Kioge, and, shortly afterwards bore himself nobly through the retreat to Corunna. In 1809 he became aide-de-camp to the duke of Richmond, lord lieutenant of Ireland, but joined the 43rd when that regiment was ordered again to Spain. With the light brigade (the 43rd, 52nd, and 95th), under the command of General Craufurd, he marched to Talavera and had an attack of pleurisy on the way. He refused to leave Spain, was wounded on the Coa, and shot near the spine at Cazal Nova. After he left the lines of Torres Vedras he became brigade major, was present at Fuentes d'Onor, but had an attack of ague and was obliged to return to England. He married Caroline Amelia Fox, daughter of General Henry Fox. Three weeks after wards he again started for Spain, and was present at the storming of Badajoz, where his great friend Colonel M`Leod was killed. He took command of the 43rd regiment (he was now a substantive major) and commanded it at the battle of Salamanca. At the battle of the Nivelle he secured the most strongly fortified part of Soult's position, practically without orders. He served with his regiment at the battles of the Nive, where he was wounded, Orthes, and Toulouse. For his services he was made brevet lieu tenant-colonel, and one of the first C.B.'s. He then entered the military college at Farnham. He commanded his regiment in the invasion of France after Waterloo, and remained in France with the army of occupation until 1819, when he retired on half-pay. As this was not enough for him to live on with a wife and family, he studied with George Jones, the academician to become an artist.
His career was to be great in literature, not in art. The tendency appeared in a review of Jomini's works (Edinburgh Rev.) in 1821, and in 1823 Bickersteth (afterwards Lord Langdale) suggested to him writing a history of the Peninsular War. The duke of Wellington gave him much assistance, and handed over to him the whole of Joseph Bonaparte's correspondence which had been taken at the battle of Vittoria; this was all in cipher, but Mrs. Napier, with great patience, discovered the keys. Marshal Soult also took an active interest in the work and arranged for the French translation of Mathieu Dumas. In 1828 the first volume of the History appeared. The publisher, John Murray, was dis appointed in the sale of the first volume and Napier published the remainder himself. But the excitement which followed the appear ance of each volume is proved by the innumerable pamphlets issued by those who believed themselves to be attacked, and by personal altercations with many distinguished officers. This suc
cess was due to a combination of qualities which have justly secured for Napier the title of being the greatest military historian England has produced. When in 1840 the last volume of the History was published, his fame was safely established.
His life during these years had been chiefly absorbed in his History, but he had warmly sympathized with the movement for political reform which was agitating England. The Radicals of Bath and many other cities and towns pressed him to enter parlia ment, and Napier was invited to become the military chief of a national guard to obtain reforms by force of arms. He refused the dangerous honour on the ground that he was in bad health and had a family of eight children. In 183o he had been pro moted colonel, and in 1842 he was made a major-general and given the lieutenant-governorship of Guernsey. Here he managed the relations between the soldiers and the inhabitants, and worked out proposals for a complete scheme of reform in the government of the island.
In 1845 he published his History of the Conquest of Scinde, and in 1851 the corresponding History of the Administration of Scinde. In 1847 he resigned his governorship, and in 1848 was made a K.C.B., and settled at Scinde House, Clapham Park. In 1851 he was promoted lieutenant-general. His time was occupied in defending his brother, and in revising the numerous editions of his History which were being called for. His energy is the more astonishing when it is remembered that he never recovered from the effects of the wound he had received at Cazal Nova, and that he often had to lie on his back for months together. His domestic life was shadowed by the incurable affliction of his only son. He devoted himself to writing the life of his brother Charles, which appeared in 1857. He died on Feb. 12, 186o. Four months earlier he had been promoted to the full rank of general.
His brother, SIR GEORGE THOMAS NAPIER ( I 784-1855) , entered the army in 1800, and served with distinction under Moore and Wellington in the Peninsula. He became major-general in 1837, K.C.B. in 1838 and lieutenant-general in 1846. He was governor and commander-in-chief at the Cape from 1839 to 1843. He was offered, but declined, the chief command in India after Chil lianwalla, and also that of the Sardinian army in 1849. He became full general in 1854. He died at Geneva on Sept. 16, 1855. His autobiography, Passages in the Early Military Life of General Sir G. T. Napier, was published by his son, General W. C. E. Napier in 1885.
The youngest brother, HENRY EDWARD NAPIER ( I 789-1853), served in the navy during the Napoleonic wars, retired as a captain, and wrote a learned Florentine History from the earliest authentic Records to the Ac,,ession of Ferdinand III. of Tuscany For Sir William Napier's life, see his Life and Letters, edited by H. A. Bruce (Lord Aberdare) (1862).