Charles James Napier General Sir Charles James Napier , GCB ( 10 August 178229 August 1853 ) , was a general of the British Empire and the British Army ' s Commander - in - Chief in India , notable for conquering the Sindh Province in what is now Pakistan . His genealogy . He was the eldest son of Colonel ( the Honourable ) George Napier and his second wife , Lady Sarah Lennox , with this being the second marriage for both parties . Lady Sarah was the great - granddaughter of King Charles II . Napier was born at the Whitehall Palace in London , and he received part of his education at boarding school in Celbridge , Ireland . Napier joined the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the British Army in 1794 , and decided to become a career soldier . The Peninsular War . Napier commanded the 50th ( Queen ' s Own ) Regiment of Foot during Peninsular War in Iberia against Napoleon Bonaparte . Napier ' s activities there ended during the Battle of Corunna , in which he was wounded and left for dead on the battlefield . Napier was rescued , barely alive , by a French Army drummer named Guibert , and taken as a prisoner - of - war . Nevertheless , Napier was awarded an Army Gold Medal after he was returned to British hands . Napier recuperated from his wounds while he was being held near the headquarters of the French Marshall Soult , and then somehow he was returned to the British Army . Napier volunteered to return to the Iberian Peninsula in 1810 to fight again against Napoleon in Portugal - notably in the Battle of the Côa , where he had two horses shot out from under him , in the Battle of Bussaco , in the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro , and in the Battle of Badajoz ( 1812 ) ( the second siege of Badajoz ) in Extremadura , Spain , in which he was a lieutenant colonel in the 102nd regiment . For his deeds at Bussaco and at Fuentes de Oñoro , Napier won the silver medal with two clasps . In 1838 , Napier returned to England to become the General Officer Commanding of the British Northern District . Service in India . In 1842 , at the age of 60 , Napier was appointed Major General to the command of the Indian army within the Bombay Presidency . Here Lord Ellenborough ' s policy led Napier to Sindh Province ( Scinde ) , for the purpose of quelling the insurrection of the Muslim rulers who had remained hostile to the British Empire following the First Anglo - Afghan War . Napier ' s campaign against these chieftains resulted in victories in the Battle of Miani ( Meanee ) against General Hoshu Sheedi and the Battle of Hyderabad , and then the subjugation of the Sindh Province , and its annexation by its eastern neighbours . His orders had been only to put down the rebels , and by conquering the whole Sindh Province he greatly exceeded his mandate . Napier was supposed to have despatched to his superiors the short , notable message , " " Peccavi " " , the Latin for " " I have sinned " " ( which was a pun on " I have Sindh " ) . This pun appeared in a cartoon in " Punch " magazine in 1844 beneath a caricature of Charles Napier . The true author of the pun was , however , Catherine Winkworth , an English girl then in her teens , who submitted it to " Punch " , which then printed it as a factual report . Later proponents of British rule over the East Indians justified the conquest thus : " If this was a piece of rascality , it was a noble piece of rascality ! " On 4 July 1843 , Napier was appointed Knight Grand Cross in the military division of the Order of the Bath , in recognition of his leading the victories at Miani and Hyderabad . Napier was appointed Governor of the Bombay Presidency by Lord Ellenborough . However , under his leadership the administration clashed with the policies of the directors of the British East India Company , and Napier was accordingly removed from office and returned home in disgust . Napier was again dispatched to India during the spring of 1849 , in order to obtain the submission of the Sikhs . However upon arriving once again in India , Napier found that this had already been accomplished by Lord Gough and his army . A story for which Napier is often noted involved Hindu priests complaining to him about the prohibition of Sati by British authorities . This was the custom of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband . As first recounted by his brother William , he replied : Napier remained for a while as the Commander - in - Chief in India . He also quarrelled repeatedlly with Lord Dalhousie , the Governor - General of India . Finally , Napier resigned from his post in India , and returned home to England for the last time . Napier was still suffering with physical infirmities which were results of his wounds during the Peninsular War , and he died about two years later at Oaklands , near Portsmouth , England , on 29 August 1853 , at the age of 71 . Napier ' s former house is now part of Oaklands Catholic School of Waterlooville . His remains were buried in the Royal Garrison Church in Portsmouth . Views on subduing insurgencies . General Napier put down several insurgencies in India during his reign as Commander - in - Chief in India , and once said of his philosophy about how to do so effectively : which may help explain why he felt rebellions should be suppressed with such brutality . He also once said that : " " the human mind is never better disposed to gratitude and attachment than when softened by fear " . " An implementation of this theory would be after the Battle of Miani , where most of the Mirs surrendered . One leader held back and was told by Napier : " Come here instantly . Come here at once and make your submission , or I will in a week tear you from the midst of your village and hang you . " He also mused that : " " so perverse is mankind that every nationality prefers to be misgoverned by its own people than to be well ruled by another " " Memorials . In 1903 , the 25th Bombay Rifles ( which as the 25th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry had formed part of Napier ' s force in the conquest of Sindh ) was renamed the 125th Napier ' s Rifles . Since amalgamated , it is now the 5th Battalion ( Napier ' s ) of the Rajputana Rifles . A statue in honour of Sir Charles Napier by George Gamon Adams ( 1821 – 1898 ) is on the southwest plinth , of the four plinths in Trafalgar Square , London . The city of Napier in the Hawke ' s Bay region of New Zealand is named after Sir Charles Napier . The suburb of Meeanee commemorates his victory in the Battle of Miani . The city of Karachi in Sindh ( Pakistan ) earlier had a Napier Road ( now Shahrah - e - Altaf Hussain ) , Napier Street ( now Mir Karamali Talpur Road ) and Napier Barracks ( now Liaquat Barracks ) on Shara - e - Faisal . In the port area , there is also a Napier Mole . In Manora , the St . Paul ' s Church , erected in 1864 , is a memorial to Napier . The Napier Gardens in Argostoli on the Greek island of Kefalonia are named after him . Some ten pubs in England are named after him , either as the Sir Charles Napier , or the General Napier . Karachi Grammar School named its second - oldest house " Napier " after Sir Charles Napier ( the oldest House is named Frere after Sir Henry Bartle Frere ) . The city of Ambala in Haryana ( India ) has a road named after him in the cantonment area . 54 , Napier Road , the official residence of the Commissioner Of Police of Ambala is on this road . and his brothers :