Albert Napier

Who was Albert Napier?

Sir Albert Edward Alexander Napier KCB KCVO QC was a British civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department between 1944 and 1954. The youngest son of Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, Albert Napier studied at Eton College and New College, Oxford before being called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1909. In 1915 he became Private Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, and in 1919 Assistant Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office.

In 1944 he succeeded Claud Schuster as Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. As secretary of the Rushcliffe Committee which produced the report on legal aid and Permanent Secretary of the department tasked with enacting the proposed system, Napier has been described as the "midwife to civil legal aid". Despite this his achievements are consistently overlooked, as he came between two particularly strong and influential Permanent Secretaries, Claud Schuster and Sir George Coldstream. He retired on 4 June 1954, with Coldstream succeeding him, and died on 18 July 1973.