Widnes Examiner. — 1891-02-07 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA.  at the conclusion of which, having attained the rank of major,he was selected by the late Sir Henry Lawrence for the responsible post of Engineer to the Durbar of Lahore. After further promotion to the rank of colonel, he was appointed Chief Engineer under the new Punjab 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, &c., requisite to the efficient administration of the province. During the mutiny of 1857 he served in the capacity of chief engineer with the army of Sir Colin Campbell, and the part he played in the suppression ot the rebellion greatly enhanced his previously high reputation. It 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 on Sir Hugh Rose claiming the execution of the task, Colonel Napier acted as his second in command. He served as second in command under Sir Hope Grant in the brief but brilliant Chinese war, and in 1860 he was made Major-General, and received the honour of knighthood. The most remarkable military undertaking in the career of Lord Napier was the war in Abyssinia, undertaken in 1870, to liberate certain persons held captive by King Theodore. He achieved a brilliant success. Theodore was thoroughly defeated in an engagement on the heights of Islamjie, April 10th, 1868, and soon after released his prisoners. The English commander followed up this victory by the storming 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 cf £2,000 per annum was settled on him and his next heir in consideration of his services ; and he was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Napier of Magdea ; and received other marks of honour. In January, 1870, he suceeded Sir Win. Mansfield, as commander-in-chief of the forces in India; he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar in 1876 ; and in 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 wkr against Russia—a contingency which was avertgd by the Treaty of Berlin. At the time of his death— which took place on the 12th January, last year— Lord Napier was Constable of the Tower. A public funeral was accorded him in St. Paul's.  The Napiers are famous, both as fighters and writers, in the annals of British war, and the subject of this obituary was early destined to follow the ime career as so many others , ! the illustrious family to t)thich he belonged. He was a son of Major C. F. Napier, the Royal Artillery, and as born in Ceylon, in 1810. Le entered the corps of the // • \.\ Bengal Engineers in 1828, an Linction in the Sutlej campaign,  i,,/--,p,,,,  OA w, th, of  .d served with distin,