AustLit

S. Elliott Napier was educated at Newington College, in Sydney. On leaving school he initially worked in a bank, before studying law. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1899, after which he practiced in Sydney and in country New South Wales. During World War I, Napier joined the AIF and served in England and France. Immediately after the war he remained in England, working as a legal officer with the AIF, handling court-martial cases. On his return to Australia, Napier again worked as a legal officer, this time for the War Service Homes Commissioner. He then resigned to work as a freelance journalist. In 1925 he joined the Fairfax newspaper stable, working at both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sydney Mail until his retirement in 1938.

In addition to his poetry and short stories, Napier also wrote a number of historical works, including a history of the Sydney Repertory Theatre Society (1923), a history of the Sydney Morning Herald (1931), and articles for the Royal Australian Historical Society Journal. He also edited The Book of the Anzac Memorial (1934). He was at various points president of the P.E.N. Club and also the New South Wales Institute of Journalists.

E. Morris Miller, in Australian Literature : From Its Beginnings to 1935 (1940) and Miller and Macartney, in Australian Literature : A Bibliography to 1938 (1956) mention a book, This Roundabout (1938). This has not been traced.