Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/North, Charles Napier
NORTH, CHARLES NAPIER (1817–1869), colonel, born 12 Jan. 1817, was eldest son of Captain Roger North (d. 1822), half-pay 71st foot, who had served in the 50th foot under Sir Charles James Napier [q. v.] His mother was Charlotte Swayne (d. 1843). On 20 May 1836 he obtained an ensigncy by purchase in the 6th foot, became lieutenant on 28 Dec. 1838, and served with that regiment against the Arabs at Aden in 1840–1. He exchanged to the 60th royal rifles, in which he got his company on 28 Dec. 1848, and served with the 1st battalion in the Punjab war of 1849 at the second siege of Multan (Mooltan), the battle of Goojerat and pursuit of the enemy to the mouth of the Khyber Pass (medal and two clasps). He landed at Calcutta from England on 14 May 1857, two days before the arrival of the news of the mutinies at Meerut and Delhi. He started to join his battalion, which had been at Meerut, and in which he got his majority on 19 June 1857, but on the way, on 11 July, obtained leave to join the column under Havelock [see Havelock, Sir Henry], and with it, first as a volunteer with the 78th highlanders, and from 21 July as deputy judge advocate of the force, was present in all the operations ending with the relief of the residency of Lucknow on 25 Sept. 1857, and the subsequent defence until the arrival of Sir Colin Campbell's force [see Campbell, Sir Colon, Lord Clyde]. North was thanked by the governor-general in council and by General Outram for ‘the readiness and resource with which he established and superintended the manufacture of Enfield rifle cartridges, a valuable service, which he rendered without any relaxation of his other duties, in the course of which he was wounded’ (medal and clasp, brevet of lieutenant-colonel, 1858, and a year's service for Lucknow). North wrote a ‘Journal with the Army in India’ (London, 1858), an accurate little narrative of personal observation from May 1857 to January 1858, when he was invalided home. He became colonel by brevet on 30 March 1865, and sold out of the army on 26 Oct. 1868. He died at Bray, co. Wicklow, on 20 Aug. 1869, aged 52. By his directions his remains were brought to England, and were laid by his old regiment in the cemetery at Aldershot.
[Information supplied by the war office; North's Journal with the Army (London, 1858); Army and Navy Gazette, August 1869.]