Napier, Robert Cornelis, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala [key], 1810–90, British general. In the engineering service in India, he fought in the Sikh Wars (1845–49) and took part in the relief of Lucknow (1857) during the Indian Mutiny. He was raised (1868) to the peerage following an expedition to Ethiopia in which he captured Magdala and compelled the release of British captives. He later acted as commander in chief in India (1870–76) and as governor of Gibraltar.
See biography by his son, H. D. Napier (1927), and his letters (ed. by his son, 1936).
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