3-057-036 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Lord Napier of Magdala, 1878. Napier was commissioned in the Bengal Engineers in 1826. He served in the first and second Sikh Wars and helped in the relief of Lucknow in 1858 during the Indian Mutiny. In 1867-68 he commanded what was regarded as a textbook campaign to free British prisoners in Abyssinia, culminating in the capture of Magdala, for which he was raised to the peerage. He went on to become commander in chief of the forces in India in 1870 and in 1876 was made Governor of Gibraltar.