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  he went to Gibraltar as governor. In 1879 he was appointed a member of the royal commission on army reorganisation. In November he was sent to Madrid as ambassador-extraordinary to represent her majesty at the second marriage of the king of Spain. Napier was much opposed to the cession of Kandahar, and his memorandum on the subject in 1880 was included in the Kandahar blue-book. On 1 Jan. 1883 Napier was made a field-marshal on his retirement from the government of Gibraltar. He spoke occasionally in the House of Lords, and always with effect, for he had a charming voice and ease of manner. He left no means untried in 1884 to induce the government to do its duty to General Gordon at Khartoum. In December 1886 he was appointed constable of the Tower of London and lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the Tower Hamlets.

Napier was a man of singular modesty and simplicity of character. No one who knew him could forget the magic of his voice and his courteous bearing. He had a great love for children. His delight in art remained to the last; and, always ready to learn, at the age of seventy-eight he took lessons in a new method of mixing colours. He had a great love of books, especially of poetry. He never obtruded his knowledge or attainments, and only those who knew him intimately had any idea of their extent and depth.

Napier died at his residence in Eaton Square, London, on 14 Jan. 1890, from an attack of influenza. On his death a special army order was issued by command of the queen, conveying to the army her majesty's deep regret, and announcing a message from the German emperor, in which his majesty said: ‘I deeply grieve for the loss of the excellent Lord Napier of Magdala. … His noble character, fine gentlemanly bearing, his simplicity and splendid soldiering were qualities for which my grandfather and father always held him in high esteem.’

Napier's remains were interred on 21 Jan., with all the pomp of a state military funeral, in St. Paul's Cathedral. No funeral since that of the Duke of Wellington in 1852 had been so imposing a spectacle.

When Napier finally left India an equestrian statue of him, by Boehm, was erected by public subscription in Calcutta; and after his death a replica of this statue, also by Boehm, was erected by public subscription in Waterloo Place. In the royal engineers' mess at Chatham are two portraits of Napier, a full-length by Sir Francis Grant, and a three-quarter length by Lowes Dickenson. A medallion, in the possession of Miss A. F. Yule, was the original model for the marble memorial in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. The corps of royal engineers erected a large recreation-room for the Gordon Boys' Home at Chobham, in memory of their brother officer.

Napier was twice married: first, on 3 Sept. 1840, to Anne Sarah, eldest daughter of George Pearse, M.D., H.E.I.C.S. (she died on 30 Dec. 1849); secondly, on 2 April 1861, to Mary Cecilia, daughter of Major-general E. W. Smythe Scott, royal artillery, inspector-general of ordnance and magazines in India. Lady Napier survived him.

By his first wife he had three sons: Robert William, second and present peer, born on 11 Feb. 1845; George Campbell (twin with his brother Robert), major-general, Bengal, and C.I.E.; James Pearse, born on 30 Dec. 1849, lieutenant-colonel 10th hussars and deputy assistant-adjutant-general. Also three daughters: Catherine Anne Carington, born 12 Oct. 1841, married in 1863 to Henry Robert Dundas; Anne Amelia, born on 11 Nov. 1842, married in 1864 to Henry R. Madocks, late Bengal civil service; Clara Frances, who died in childhood.

By his second wife he had six sons, three of whom became officers in the army, and three daughters; the eldest of whom, Mary Grant, married in 1889 North More Nisbets, esq., of Cairnhill, Lanarkshire.

[Despatches; India Office Records; Royal Engineer Corps' Records; Royal Engineers' Journal, vol. xx.; Memoir by General R. Maclagan, R.E.; Porter's Hist. of the Corps of Royal Engineers; Feldmarschall Lord Napier of Magdala, Breslau, 1890.]  NAPIER, THOMAS ERSKINE (1790–1863), general, second son by his second wife of Captain Charles Napier of Merchiston, Stirlingshire, and brother of Admiral Sir Charles Napier [q. v.], was born on 10 May 1790. On 3 July 1805 he was appointed ensign in the 52nd light infantry, and on 1 May 1806 he became lieutenant. He served with the 52nd at Copenhagen in 1807; was aide-de-camp to Sir John Hope [see, fourth ] in the expedition to Sweden in 1808, and afterwards served at Coruña and in Portugal. On 27 Oct. 1809 he was promoted to be captain in the Chasseurs Britanniques, a corps of foreigners in British pay, with which he served in Sicily, at Fuentes d'Onoro, at the defence of Cadiz, and in Spain in 1812–13. When Sir John Hope joined the Peninsular army in 1813, Napier resumed his position of aide-de-camp; in the great battles on the Nive he was slightly wounded on 10 Dec. 1813,