NAPIER, ROBERT CORNELIS

Robert Cornelis Napier (December 6, 1810-January 14, 1890) led the British expedition of 1867-68 against Emperor Tewodros II [reigned 1855-68]. After defeating Tewodros in his mountain stronghold of Maqdala, he was created Baron Napier of Maqdala in 1868.

PHOTO CAPTION: Robert Cornelis Napier SOURCE: EA Library

Born in Colombo, Ceylon the son of a major in the British royal artillery, Napier was trained at the British India Company’s military college, and received his first commission with the Bengal Engineers.  A specialist in military engineering, he participated in the two Sikh wars of the 1840s in India, in both of which he was wounded, in the fighting which followed the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and was placed in command of one of the Indian divisions employed in the British expedition to China in 1860. He also served for a short time as temporary governor-general of India.

In 1867, during the dispute between Emperor Tewodros and the British government, which resulted in the emperor’s detention of British and other European hostages, Napier was selected, through the influence of the Duke of Cambridge, to lead an expedition from Bombay to Ethiopia. He held the rank of lieutenant-general, and was allowed to choose his own troops, the majority of whom were Indians.

Napier’s force landed at the Red Sea port of Zula, 30 mi (48 km) south-south-east of Massawa, on January 2, 1868. It included Indian elephants, which surprised the Ethiopian population of the districts through which it passed. Napier worked indefatigably on the question of supplies, building a 12-mile (19km) rail road before carrying out his famous 420-mile (672 km) march to the mountain fortress of Tewodros at Maqdala, which he reached on April 10.

The emperor then released the European prisoners he had been detaining. But though a parley between the British and the Ethiopians was opened, Napier attacked the citadel, and Tewodros, unable to resist, committed suicide on April 13 rather than fall into the invaders’ hands.

Napier, in accordance with earlier British promises to both Ethiopia and Egypt, withdrew from the country, which his force could not in any case have garrisoned. On his return to England in 1868, he received great honours, a pension, and the title of Baron Napier of Maqdala. He subsequently became commander-in-chief in India (1870-76), governor of Gibraltar (1876-82), and was promoted to field marshal in 1883.

RICHARD PANKHURST