Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Railway engineer. Charles George Napier, a son of the historian and naval officer Henry Edward Napier, was born in Florence in 1829. He attended lectures in civil engineering at King's College, London, during 1848 and 1849 and then became a pupil of GEORGE WILLOUGHBY HEMANS GEORGE WILLOUGHBY HEMANS , completing his pupilage in 1852. In 1853 he was appointed resident engineer on the Longford branch of the Midland Great Western Railway. On the completion of these works he served in the Crimea as assistant-superintendent in the third division of the Army Works Corps. At the end of the war he returned to Ireland, where, in 1858, he was appointed chief resident engineer of the Athenry & Tuam Railway under Hemans, a post which he held until the opening of the line in 1860. During this period he also conducted the Parliamentary survey of the Athenry & Ennis Junction Railway. In 1861 he worked on the River Fergus Embankment and Reclamation Survey before his appointment at the end of the year as chief resident engineer on the Enniskillen & Bundoran Railway. In December 1864 he was appointed engineer in charge of the southern division of the Great Southern and Western Railway, following the death of GEORGE MACKAY MILLER GEORGE MACKAY MILLER . He retained this post until 1871, when he set up in private practice in Dublin and London. From 1874 until 1877 he was in South Africa as resident engineer on the Cape Government railways. Having returned to Ireland, he prepared plans for the arterial drainage of a large tract of land in Cos. Galway and Roscommon in 1879, and in 1880 he was appointed inspecting engineer of baronial relief works by the Commissioners of Public Works. At about this time his health began to fail, and in 1881 he moved to the south of England, hoping to bring about an improvement. He died the following year on 2 September 1882.

ICEI: elected member, 1866.(1)
Inst.CE: elected member, 7 February 1871.

See BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituary of Napier in Min.Proc.Inst.CE 71 (1882-83), Pt. 1, 407-408, and the short biography in IB 26, 15 Feb 1884, 64.

(1) List of ICEI members in IB 12, 15 Aug 1870, 197.


Author Title Date Details
Napier, Charles George 'On Permanent Way' 1874 TICEI 10 (1870-74), 6-24. (Paper read to ICEI, 9 Mar 1870.)
Napier, Charles George [On creation of a central railway terminus at Cork] ? Pamphlet, mentioned in obituary of Napier in Min.Proc.Inst.CE 71 (1882-83), Pt. 1, 408.