Background
Ian Napier was born in Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, one of three children born to Henry Melville Napier (1854–1940), engineer, shipbuilder, and founder of Napier & Miller Company
Ian Napier was born in Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, one of three children born to Henry Melville Napier (1854–1940), engineer, shipbuilder, and founder of Napier & Miller Company
On 2 September 1914, Napier was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 9th (The Dumbartonshire) Battalion, Princess Louise"s (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders). On 8 July 1915, he was appointed an aide-de-camp, finally returning to his regiment on 8 February 1916, and being promoted to lieutenant the next day. Napier was awarded Royal Aeronautical Club Aviator"s Certificate Number.
3269 after soloing a B.E.2c biplane at the Military School, Hounslow Heath, on 18 July.
On 4 August, he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps and appointed a flying officer Napier was assigned to Number.
40 Squadron Reconstruction Finance Corporation as a Nieuport pilot. He scored his first victory on 14 April 1917, by destroying an Albatros Doctorate.III. Napier resumed his victory list after upgrading to a Royal Aircraft Factory Southeast.5a.
On 6 March 1918, he destroyed an Albatros Doctorate.V. A month later, he scored again.
He then accumulated victories until 4 July 1918, when he scored his twelfth. His final tally was seven German planes destroyed (including two shared wins), three driven down out of control (one of which was shared), and two shared captures of Dallas–Fort Worth Doctorate.Vs. Napier then served as a liaison officer with the French Army, until on 18 April 1919, he was transferred to the unemployed list of the Royal Air Force. On 7 December 1920 he relinquished his Royal Air Force commission to return to the Territorial Force (probably the Highlanders).
Eventually, he went into the family shipbuilding business.
Military Cross Captain Ian Patrick Robert Napier, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and Royal Air Force. "Foreign conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. This officer has carried out many reconnaissances, and flying at low altitudes has engaged massed enemy troops with bombs and machine-gun fire, inflicting heavy casualties. He has brought down seven enemy machines." Croix de Chevalier of the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur"Honneur Awarded on 17 December 1917.