Sir Charles Napier - Winson Green

[www.midlandspubs.co.uk]

As you can see I am working around Winson Green today!!



Sir Charles Napier - Rosebery Street [pic attached]

This lovely photograph of the Sir Charles Napier was taken around the end of World War One. The name above the front door of the pub is Charles Bowsher so I assume that is him standing in the front doorway. Behind him in the entrance is an etched glass window for the Sir Charles Napier. He kept the pub with his wife Agnes from 1914 until his death in 1921. The couple had previously kept the Fountain Inn at Great Lister Street. That is possibly Agnes Bowsher holding the reins of the horse. The will of Charles Bowsher records him as a brewer's manager so it would seem that he and his wife were not tenants. The sign in the window advertises Davenport's ales. Charles Bowsher died on June 10th 1921 and widow Agnes Bowsher remained as licensee until 1927 when Thomas Collier took over as manager. An early publican of the Sir Charles Napier was George Hughes. Around the end of the 19th century he was succeeded by John Gibson. The pub is named after the London-born Scottish soldier who conquered Sind and is famed for sending the classically punny telegram 'Peccavi' [I Have Sinned]. He was a descendant of John Napier, the clever clogs who invented logarithms.

Cheers Kieron www.midlandspubs.co.uk

 

[loisand]

Kieron I've loved reading about the pubs, I have also trawled through your website on many occassion and think it's brill......keep the good work up.
Have you any knowledge on "Royal George", Digbeth, the old Royal George and the new one..this was co run by my grandfather's brother Robert and Glaydis Burrows....I know the sign of the propieter was still on the new Royal George up untill about 18 months ago, there has also been a snippet written about them in the book "The Bull Ring", also can you shed any light on "Crescent Hill Tavern", Edward Street....1891 W H Burrows was co owner...another relation....in 1901 he was tavern manager, residing at 128 Moseley St....was this a pub, if so do you know the name. I hope you don't mind me picking your brain and your research
Kindest regards

 

[mikejee]

Loisand
128 Mosely St was the Hen & Chickens, in 1904 run by John Capell Field
Mike

 

[www.midlandspubs.co.uk]

Hi Loisand
It is possible that there was another Old Royal George before the other Old Royal George if you know what I mean - i.e. the present building may be the third to be built on the site. I say this because I saw an really old map in the library [c.1780's if memory serves me] and a pub was marked on that. Anyway, as for your ancestors Robert William Burrows was licensee from July 16th 1931 til end of 1954. Elizabeth Gladys Burrows was granted the licence on January 20th 1955 but only held this for a year - was this a widow's year granted by the brewery I wonder?
I have a little information on the Crescent Hill Tavern. It was No.1 Edward Street and was a beer house rather than a fully licensed pub. William Cope kept the place in the 1860's-1880's. William Burrows is listed in a 1890 trade directory at the pub but not in 1888 [I haven't got a copy of the 1889 directory]. He is listed each year until 1898. Born in 1855, he grew up in a pub - his parents Joseph and Hannah kept a pub in Lancaster Street where Joseph was recorded as a retail brewer. He later worked in the gun trade. As you have identified [thanks MikeJee] William and Elizabeth Burrows went to the Hen and Chickens.
Good luck with your research
Kind regards
Kieron www.midlandspubs.co.uk

 

[loisand]

Thanks Mike and Kieron....sorry I went of topic of Sir Cahrles Napier

 

[flashbang]

Sir Charles Napier must have been popular round here as he has another pub named after him on Gooch street in Highgate. l wonder what his connection with Birmingham was.

 

[mikejee]

Sir Charles Napier has head of the army forces in the north ( including birmingham)when the Chartists were seeking what would now be considered normal democratic rights. Their first convention seeking those rights was in birmingham. Although he was responsible for protecting the status quo, he expressed the opinion that these demands should be considered. He also apparently had a disdain for politicians whatever their party. These, especially the last, seem good reasons to for the independent Brummie to respect him
mike

 

[flashbang]

Thanks for the info Mike, he sounds like a peoples man. l googled him and got 2 Sir Charles Nappiers but no mention of his service in england only his exploits and conquests in India and Pakistan. He seems to be popular all over the country as there are several other pubs named after him.

 

[Frothblower]

"The best way to quiet a country is a good thrashing, followed by great kindness afterwards. Even the wildest chaps are thus tamed"

Sir Charles Napier. Commander in chief in India​

 

[www.midlandspubs.co.uk]

I looked into this chap as there quite a few pubs in Birmingham named after him. For example, one stood in Blews Street and there was another trading in Camden Street.

The Gooch Street pub was built whilst the exploits of Sir Charles Napier were still fresh in the memory of Britons through the national and local press.

A general in the British Army and Commander-in-Chief in India, he is famous for conquering Sindh, a large province in present-day Pakistan. It was following his victory that he is said to have sent a message back to headquarters simply reading Peccavi, Latin for "I have sinned".

Born into a Scottish family at London's Whitehall in 1782 and first commissioned into the army in 1794, Napier was noted for his strong character and an aggressive streak.

During his early military career Napier moved in the same social circles as his cousin, Charles James Fox, which no doubt contributed to his promotion in 1806. Two years later he enhanced his reputation in the Peninsular Campaigns. At Coruña, Napier was five times wounded; his leg was shattered and his ribs broken from being shot with a musket, he took a sabre wound to the head, a bayonet gash in his back and was battered with the butt end of a rifle. Following his capture, it was reported that he had been killed. However, he was saved by a French drummer and received medical attention at Marshal Soult's quarters before being returned to his regiment in an 'exchange' deal.

Napier soon found himself back in the thick of the action and, fighting alongside General Robert Crauford in the battle at the River Cro, two horses were killed under him. Two months later when fighting under the command of Wellington at Busaco, Napier was shot through the face, the bullet breaking his jaw and injuring his eye. Out of hospital, he was back in action fighting in the Anglo-American war of 1812.

It was later in his career that Charles Napier was sent to India. Consolidating and expanding the boundaries of the British Empire, he was often seen as ruthless. Opposing the views of the political agent Sir James Outram, a diplomatically-minded man who expounded peaceful negotiation with the Amirs, Napier was branded tyrannical when writing "we have no right to seize Sindh, but we shall do so, and a very advantageous, useful, humane piece of rascality it will be."

Totally out-numbered, Napier took Sindh with the help of native Sepoy troops who had gained military advantage by adopting their own tactics.

Sir Charles Napier triumphantly returned to England in 1851 and was hailed a national hero. Regarded as a radical, his diaries reveal that he was a man of strong religious convictions. Despite his misunderstanding of other cultures, he was considered a champion of social justice.

Settling in Hampshire, he set about writing a number of books but died in 1853. Memorials of the soldier were subsequently erected in St.Paul's Cathedral and Pall Mall.

The opening of the pub in Gooch Street followed within a couple of years and the naming of the building captured the national mood of the period.

Cheers
Kieron www.midlandspubs.co.uk

 

[mckins]

Hi i am looking into all the old pubs in Birmingham, and i lived in Camden Street is there any pictures of the Sir Charles Napier.

 

[mikejee]

You will find one on post 15 at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=39710&highlight=charles+napier