OBITUARY.

Evening Star, Issue 8116, 16 January 1890, Page 4

OBITUARY.

LONDON, January 14. Lord Napier of Magdala, aged seventynine, and Lord Cairns have both fallen victims to the influenza epidemic. The disease in Lord Cairns’s case was aggravated by pneumonia.

[Napier of Magdala (baron), The Right Hon. Sir Robert Cornelia Napier, son of of Major 0. F. Napier, Royal Artillery, by Catherine! daughter of Codrington Carrington, Esq., of Blackmans, Barbadoes, was born in Ceylon in 1810. He received his education at the Millitary College, Addiscombe, entered the corps of Bengal Engineers m 1828. and served with distinction in the Sutlej campaign, at the conclusion of which, having attained the rank of major, he was selected by the late Sir Henry Lawrence for the re ponsible post of engineer to the Durbar of Lahore He was by this position enabled to acquire special knowledge of the Punjaub and its resources. He was constantly referred to when Moolraj rebelled, on all question* connected with the reduction of Modtan, at the siege of which he was present as senior engineer ; and at its fall accompanied General Wish’s force to the fords of the Chenaub where, after <he junction with the ma : n array under Lord Gough, he served ai one of Sir John Cheapes “right-hand men” at the battle of Goojerat, Ho was promoted to the rank of colonel, and named chief engineer under the new Punjaub administration, when he was enabled to carry out his long-cherished plans for covering that almost trackless country with arteries of military and commercial highways after constructing magnificent canals destined to fertilise the arid Dooab, and eventually to cause the construction of numerous public buildings, barracks, etc., requisite to the efficient administration of the province. He was engaged in the dischaige of these onerous duties for some years, until summoned to Calcutta to assume the post of chief engineer of Bengal. During the mutiny of 1857 he served in the capacity of chief engineer with the army of Bir Colin Campbell, and the part he played m the suppression of the rebellion greatly enhanced his previous high reputation. !t was he who, at the siege of Lucknow, planned that bridging of the Goomtee River which exercised so great an influence on the operations for the overthrow of the enemy, and he was afterwards appointed to the command of the force employed to destroy the rebels reunited under Tantia Topee; but ou Sir Hu»h Rose claiming the exeo;tion of this task, Colonel Napier acted as his second in command. His services in China as second in command under Sir Hope Grant are well known, and he was rewarded by being made major-general, a K 0.8., and sucoejsor to the late Sir J. Outram, as a Military Member of the Council of India. This post he resigned in January. 1865, when he was nominated to succeed Sir W. Mansfield as commander-in-chief at Bombay! with the local rank of lieutenant-general j and in 1867 he received the appointment to command the expedition intended to rescue the Abyssinian captives, and was made a Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India. He achieved a brilliant success. King Theodore was thoroughly defeated in an engagement on the heights of Islamgie, April 10, 1868, and s .on afterwards released his prisoners. The English commander followed up this viet ory by]the st, rming of Magdala on the 13th, when Theodore, in despair, committed suicide. On Sir Robert Napier’s return to England in July he received the thanks of Parliament; the sum of L 2,000 per annum was settled on him

and his next heir in consideration of his services ; he was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Napier of Magdala (July 14); was presented with the freedom of the city of London and a sword of the value of 200 guineas (July 21); and received other marks of honor. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, December 16, 1869. In January, 1870, he was appointed to succeed Sir William Mansfield as commander-in-chief of the forces in India, with the local rank of general; and in May following he was nominated fifth, ordinary member of the Council of the Governor-General of India. He was appointed Governor of Gibraltar in June, 1876. In February, 1878, he was selected by the Government to be the commander-in-chief of the English expeditionary force in the event of this country declaring war against Russia a contingency which was averted by the Treaty of Berlin. Earl Oairns, son of the celebrated Lord Chancellor of that name, was born in 1861, and succeeded to the title about twelve months ago. He gained some notoriety as Viscount Garmoyle in connection with a breach of promise case with Miss Fortescue, of the London Gaiety Company.]