Theodore Napier

Theodore Napier (1845-1924) was a Scottish Australian who played a key part in the Neo-Jacobite Revival of the 1890s and in the rebirth of Scottish Nationalism.

Early life Napier was born in Melbourne to Scottish parents in 1845. His father Thomas Napier was a Scottish builder who emigrated to the Australian colonies in 1832. Thomas married Jessie Paterson, also a Scottish emigrant, in 1836, and they had 10 children, although only two survived to adulthood.

Theodore spent three years in Tasmania at school, He returned to Australia in 1865 and spent two years in Queensland, before studying Medicine at the University of Melbourne for the next five years.

In 1892, Napier set up the Scottish National Association of Victoria, an expatriate organisation that promoted home rule for Scotland. On 1 March 1893, a large banquet was held in his honour in Essendon after he announced his intention to take a "2 year trip" to Scotland.

Napier was generally regarded as eccentric and on the fringes of the Nationalist movement; he insisted on wearing full Highland regalia in public. He was notable for his dislike of all forms of modernity, especially liberalism, socialism and republicanism.

After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Napier objected to the coronation of her successor King Edward VII. Napier believed that as no King Edward had ever sat on the throne of Scotland, the next king could not be Edward VII. He petitioned that Edward use a different name, and when that request was ignored, he announced his intention to attend the coronation ceremony and "challenge the King's champion to mortal combat".

Essendon Park Napier is well known for his donation in 1920 of of native bushland to Essendon Council (now part of the City of Moonee Valley) for parkland. This land is now called Napier Park. The deed of Gift required that the land remain as native bushland, and consequently the park is an excellent indication of what the land in Strathmore was like prior to European settlement.

In literature and popular culture The striking nature of Napier's Highland garb is referenced by Neil Munro in "Erchie on the Coronation", an Erchie MacPherson story published in the Glasgow Evening News on 11 August 1902.