Charles Napier - British Naval Commander (1786)

[Anatol]

Sir Charles John Napier (6 March 1786 – 6 November 1860) was a British naval figure who fought in the Crimean War and was an admiral (6 March 1858). He graduated from the Royal High School, Edinburgh. On 1 November 1799, he volunteered for the sloop Martin, which was cruising in the North Sea. He served on various ships, becoming a midshipman in November 1802 and a lieutenant on 30 November 1805. He received his baptism of fire in 1806, participating in John Warren's February expedition, and then on 30 March during the capture of the French 74-gun ship of the line Marengo and the frigate Belle-Poule. In 1808, commanding the 18-gun brig Recruit, he was wounded in a stubborn battle with the 22-gun French corvette Diligente, which he forced to flee.
In 1810, dismissed from service for a careless speech to the voters of his district, he went to Portugal, joined the ranks of the English army. On September 27, he was wounded a second time in a battle with the French at Bussaco.
In 1811, he was returned to the fleet. Having received command of the 32-gun frigate Thames, he distinguished himself in a number of battles with the French in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Italy. He captured up to 40 small ships and several batteries.
Sent in 1814 in the detachment of Vice-Admiral Cochrane to the waters of North America, he especially distinguished himself in operations against Baltimore, where he was wounded again. In 1815, upon returning to England, his frigate was handed over to the port, and he himself, awarded the Order of the Bath, lived in France until 1829, where, among other things, he was involved in organizing shipping on the Seine.
Returning to duty in 1829, he again commanded ships, but in 1833 he left the English service and transferred with the rank of vice-admiral to the Portuguese fleet. On July 5, 1833, he won a decisive victory over the strongest fleet of Miguel of Braganza at Cape San Vicente. For this victory, in September of the same year, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword, received the title of Count of San Vicente and elevated to the Grandee of Portugal. On October 15, 1834, he received the rank of admiral of the Portuguese fleet.
He returned to English service in 1839. In 1840 he was promoted to commodore. In the summer of that year, he patrolled along the coast of Lebanon, protecting Maronite Christians from the 15,000-strong Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha. On September 28, he forced the Egyptian garrison in Sidon to capitulate. On October 3, the Egyptians left Beirut. Commanding a combined Anglo-Austrian-Turkish landing force, Napier defeated an Egyptian detachment occupying a strong position in the mountains near Beirut on October 10 and took about 5,000 people prisoner. On November 3, after intensive bombardment, he occupied Acre, the last stronghold of the Egyptians on the Levantine coast. On November 25, he took command of the allied squadron in Alexandria. On November 27, he concluded a peace convention with Muhammad Ali. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, awarded the Russian Order of St. George, 3rd class (16 November 1840), the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, 3rd class, and the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd class.
Upon returning to England, he was appointed naval aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria. In 1841–47, he was a member of parliament for Marylebone. On 9 November 1846, he was promoted to rear admiral.
With the outbreak of the Crimean War, he was promoted to vice admiral on 28 May 1853 and appointed commander of the English squadron in the Baltic Sea. This squadron was the largest flotilla to sail from Great Britain since 1815. However, the flotilla was poorly manned, the crew was inexperienced, and the squadron was not suited to the siege actions that the British public expected. All he could do was blockade Russian merchant and military ships, preventing them from leaving the Baltic Sea. [1] He contributed to the capitulation of Bomarsund. But then his military fortunes deserted him: lacking sufficient resources for decisive action, Napier refused to attack Sveaborg and Vyborg, for which he was censured by the Admiralty. In September, he was removed from his post as squadron commander, recalled to England and sent into retirement. In 1855-1860, he was a member of parliament for the constituency of Southwark.
The stamp depicts a portrait of the admiral against the background of a painting by artist Edwin Thomas Dolby, "The Bombardment of Bomarsund from the Deck of the Bulldog, 15 August 1854".
PMR 2019; [P].
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_N ... y_officer).