General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Sir Thomas Erskine Napier (10 May 1790 – 5 July 1863) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who became Commander-in-Chief, Scotland.

Military career

Napier was commissioned into the

52nd Regiment of Foot The 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot was a light infantry regiment of the British Army throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries. The regiment first saw active service during the American War of Independence, and were posted to India du ...

on 3 July 1805. He took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in August 1807, at the

Battle of Corunna The Battle of Corunna (or ''A Coruña'', ''La Corunna'', ''La Coruña'' or ''La Corogne''), in Spain known as Battle of Elviña, took place on 16 January 1809, when a French corps under Marshal of the Empire Jean de Dieu Soult attacked a Briti ...

in January 1809 and at the

Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro In the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro (3–5 May 1811), the British–Portuguese Army under Wellington checked an attempt by the French Army of Portugal under Marshal André Masséna to relieve the besieged city of Almeida. A bloody stalema ...

in May 1811 during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. He also took part in the

Battle of the Nive The Battles of the Nive (9–13 December 1813) were fought towards the end of the Peninsular War. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish army defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army on French soil in ...

in December 1813 where he was wounded. He went on to be assistant adjutant-general in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and then served as Commander-in-Chief, Scotland and also as Governor of Edinburgh Castle from 1852 to 1854. From 1854 to 1857 he was Colonel of the 16th (Bedfordshire) Regiment and from 1857 to his death Colonel of the

71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot The 71st Regiment of Foot was a Highland regiment in the British Army, raised in 1777. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot to become the 1st Battalion, Highland Light Infantry in 1881. History ...

. He was the brother of Admiral Sir Charles Napier.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Napier, Thomas 1790 births 1863 deaths British Army generals British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath 52nd Regiment of Foot officers People from Govan