Background
Born the son of Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet and Lady Edith Christian Ramsay, Napier joined the Royal Navy in 1887.
lieutenant navy officer commander
Born the son of Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet and Lady Edith Christian Ramsay, Napier joined the Royal Navy in 1887.
He served as a Lieutenant on board the cruiser HMS Barrosa when in January 1900 he was landed in Cape Colony to take part in the Second Boer War, during which he was mentioned in despatches and wounded. He also served in World War I commanding the battleships HMS Benbow and HMS Thunderer and seeing action at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. He went on to be Commander of Patrols at Malta and then Commander of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron in which capacity he was present at the surrender of the German Fleet.
After the War he became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and then Assistant-Chief of the Naval Staff.
He became Commander of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron in 1920 and went on to be Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station in 1924. She was the daughter of a large runholder, Thomas Coldham Williams, who had retired to Wellington in New Zealand.
Her elder sister Eila married Vernon Reed in 1909. He represented the Bay of Islands electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives.
Fergusson"s elder brother Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, was 3rd Governor-General of New Zealand (1924–1930).