William Napier (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral William Rawdon Napier, CB, CMG, DSO (13 June 1877 – 8 April 1951) was a Royal Navy officer who served as First Naval Member and Chief of the Australian Naval Staff from 1926 to 1929.

Naval service

Napier joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1887.^[1] He was a lieutenant when on 25 July 1902 he was posted to the cruiser HMS St George, serving in the Cruiser squadron.^[2]

He served during the First World War and was mentioned in despatches for his service in the Gallipoli Campaign^[3] and awarded the Distinguished Service Order for minesweeping operations.^[4] He was appointed First Naval Member and Chief of the Australian Naval Staff in 1926; he retired in 1929 and was promoted to full admiral in 1933.^[5] He died at his home in Fareham in Hampshire in 1951.^[5]

References

Chiefs of the Royal Australian Navy
Director, Commonwealth Naval Forces	Sir William Rooke Creswell
First Naval Members, Australian Commonwealth Naval Board	Sir William Rooke Creswell Sir Percy Grant Sir Allan Everett Percival Hall-Thompson William Napier Sir William Munro Kerr Sir George Hyde Sir Ragnar Colvin Sir Guy Royle Sir Louis Keppel Hamilton Sir John Augustine Collins Sir Roy Dowling Sir Henry Burrell Sir Hastings Harrington Sir Alan McNicoll Sir Victor Smith Sir Richard Peek Sir David Stevenson
Chiefs of the Naval Staff	Sir Anthony Synnot Sir James Willis David Leach Michael Hudson Ian MacDougall Rodney Taylor
Chiefs of Navy	Rodney Taylor Donald Chalmers David Shackleton Chris Ritchie Russ Shalders Russell Crane Raymond Griggs Timothy Barrett