Autograph Copy Signed ('C G Napier') of letter from Major Charles George Napier to General Sir Henry Torrens, requesting a promotion and pension for wounds received at Waterloo, leaving him 'the greatest sufferer probably in the whole Army'.

Folio, 1 p. 35 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Docketed 'Copy of Letter wch. proved the antedate of Major'. He apologises for troubling Torrens again with his 'unfortunate case'. he is 'still on crutches and a very great sufferer in consequence of the numerous & severe Wounds I received in the Battle of Waterloo'. He is 'induced to implore His Rl. Highness The Commander in Chief [i.e. the Prince of Wales] to allow my commission as Brevet Major'. His object 'for imploring this indulgence' is to give him 'the Claim for a Major's Pension which [...] I so much stand in need of, owing to the heavy expences I am obliged to sustain in consequence of my disabled state'. He has been told by the Prince of Wales that 'he saw no reason I should not get the Pension but that it rested with the War Office'. Notes that 'a similar indulgence has been granted to Lt. Colnl Duffy of the 8th. Regt.', and hopes that as he is 'the greatest sufferer probably in the whole Army' he may receive the same. Napier entered the Artillery in 1803 as second lieutenant. The severe nature of the wounds he received at Waterloo is described in the Royal Military Calendar (1820): 'as Second Capt. of Maj. Hawkin's brigade of Artillery; [he] served with the brigade in the battle of Waterloo, and commanded the same the major part of that day, the services of which gained him his Majority ; and the numerous wounds he received, has put an end to his military career, at the early age of twenty-seven. Maj. N. received several wounds about the head, body, and hands, and his thigh was broken in two places. He is still on crutches, has had upwards of fifty pieces of bone extracted from his thigh, two large pieces of shell, and there is supposed to be a ball now in the limb, and another in his right shoulder. He has had part of his skull taken away, a severe wound in the cheek, a ball in the right shoulder, right leg fractured in two places, three fingers of the right hand destroyed, and a wound in the left elbow; his sword saved the other leg, the steel scabbard of which was so beat in that the sword could not be sheathed'. Napier is said to have retired to Walmer on half pay, to have remarried (a Miss Lewin), and to have died in the Cape of Good Hope, around 1846.