Lieutenant-Colonel James Campbell (1787 – 7 July 1858) was a lieutenant-colonel of the British army who distinguished himself in the Peninsular War. He emigrated to New Zealand and was appointed as a land commissioner, and later as Registrar of Deeds, in Canterbury.
British Army career Campbell was born in 1787. He descends from the Campbells of Skerrington at Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Campbell was an officer with the 45th and the 50th Regiment of Foot, serving in the 3rd Division and the 7th Division. He joined the British Army at a young age, purchasing ensign and lieutenant commissions with the 45th Regiment on 2 October 1801. He was appointed as an adjutant on 12 November 1803, captain on 29 December 1808, brevet major on 3 March 1814 and lieutenant colonel on 21 January 1819.
In 1806 Campbell sailed with the 45th regiment as part of Major-general Robert Craufurd's unsuccessful campaign to South America as part of the British invasions of the River Plate. In 1807 he was taken prisoner during the second battle of Buenos Ayres (Argentina); he was released and (after 75 weeks away from home) evacuated back to Ireland when the commanding officer Lieutenant-general John Whitelocke surrendered and agreed to withdraw from the River Plate and Montevideo (Uruguay).
In 1808 he sailed with his regiment to Portugal for the Peninsular War on the Iberian Peninsula and saw action in the battles of Roliça (17 August 1808), Vimeiro (21 August 1808) and Talavera (July 1809), after which he returned to England for a short period.
In 1810 he returned to Portugal with the 45th Regiment and, as part of the 3rd Division commanded by Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Picton, fought in the battles of Bussaco (September 1810), Sabugal (April 1811), Fuentes de Oñoro (May 1811), El Bodón (September 1811), Ciudad Rodrigo (January 1812), Badajoz (March – April 1812, where he was appointed as brigade major for Major-General Sir James Kempt's brigade), Salamanca (July 1812), and Buen Retiro Palace (Madrid, August 1812, where a significant French garrison was surrendered).
Serving in the 3rd Division in the same brigade, now commanded by Major-general Sir Thomas Brisbane, he fought in the battles of Vitoria (June 1813), the Pyrenees (July – August 1813), Nivelle (November 1813), Nive (December 1813), Orthez (February 1814, where he was promoted to the rank of major), and Toulouse (April 1814).
After Napoleon's surrender in April 1814, Campbell sailed from Bordeaux for North America to serve in the American War of 1812. As brigade major for Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane's brigade, he took part in the Battle of Plattsburgh in September 1814.
In July 1815 he returned to France and was brigade major for a brigade in the 7th Division and, on the formation of the Army of Occupation in France, to the 1st brigade in the 3rd Division. When the occupation force was reduced in 1817 he returned to Ireland.
According to Burnham and McGuiganThe British Army Against Napoleon: Facts, Lists and Trivia, 1805–1815, Bob Burnham & Ron McGuigan, 2010, Frontline Books, page 313 Campbell was one of only 15 men to receive 14 or more clasps on the Military General Service Medal.Dix Noonan Webb Medal Roll for Military General Service Medal His obituary in the Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle states:
"The ranks of Major and Lieutenant-Colonel were successively conferred on him for his services in the field, and he had also the honour of receiving a war medal different from those usually conferred, and no fewer than fourteen clasps, (being one more than any officer in the British service had been honoured with)."
In 1840, Campbell published the book A British army, as it was, – is, – and ought to be, which recounts some of his experience in the Peninsular War and the Battle of Plattsburgh (see Bibliography below). In Volume 1 of Excursions, Adventures, and Field-sports in Ceylon Campbell notes that, from the start of his service in the army, he was in the habit of keeping a journal. However the night before the Battle of Talavera, thinking that he would be likely to die the next day and not wanting his journal to fall into enemy hands, he burnt it, and thus destroyed the record of events from the previous eight years.
In February 1819, after promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, Campbell sailed with a command of 300 men to Ceylon. For two years he was the commander of the Galle District and then for a further period he was commander and Judicial Officer (Magistrate) of the Sath (Seven) Korles district.Excursions, Adventures, and Field-sports in Ceylon: Its Commercial and Military Importance, and Numerous Advantages to the British Emigrant, Volumes 1 & 2, publisher:T. & W. Boone, 1843
He repeatedly became ill in Ceylon from jungle fever and had to return England, where he sold his commission and retired from the army.
Family and post-army life Campbell was married to Charlotte Alicia and had two children, a son and a daughter. His son, Major Francis Eastwood Campbell, was Clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives for 35 years. Campbell's daughter, Blanche Emily, married AG Anderson.Lyttelton Times, 27 April 1861, page 4Otago Witness, 4 May 1851, page 4 Campbell's granddaughter from his daughter's marriage was Dame Adelaide Mary Anderson.Scrapbooks of Dame Adelaide Anderson, The Women's Library, London School of Economics
After Campbell returned from Ceylon (around 1823) he resided at Ravensdale Estate in the parish of Ballaugh on the Isle of Man,Ballaugh Parish and Village, Pigot & Co's Directory and Topography of the Isle of Man, 1837Ballaugh Parish and Village, Slater's Commercial Directory of the Isle of Man, 1846A descriptive account of each parish and of the four principal towns in the Isle of Mann, Johnson's Historical, Topographical, & Parochial Illustrated Guide and Visitor's Companion Through the Isle of Mann, James Brotherston Laughton, 1850 where he was appointed as a magistrate.Isle of Man Constitution and Government, A New Guide and Visitor's Companion Through the Isle of Man, William Cannell, 1843Quiggin’s Illustrated Guide and Visitor's Companion Through the Isle of Man, Directory for Douglas, C.1848 Around 1846 Lieutenant Governor John Ready selected Campbell to serve as a member of the House of Keys. However Campbell refused to attend the swearing in at Castle Rushen as he disagreed with the way in which members of the House of Keys were appointed, having previously been a signatory to a petition to Queen Victoria requesting that she change the appointment process.Extracts form the Journals of the Self-Elected House of Keys, Chapter V, The House of Keys and its Members, C.1906
During this period Campbell wrote books on the British army (published 1840), Ceylon (two volumes in 1843) and Ireland (published 1847). See Bibliography below for further details.
Emigration to New Zealand Campbell had mixed fortunes after leaving the army. He became interested in matters relating to British colonisation of lands such as New Zealand. In Excursions, Adventures, and Field-sports in Ceylon (Preface and Appendix O of Volume 1 and chapter 13 of Volume 2 – see Bibliography below) he set out his views on colonisation, including the merits of providing colonists with cheap passage, land and labour (including convict labour).
Campbell was appointed to the Committee of Management of the Society of Canterbury Colonists when it was formed in London on 25 April 1850. The Society was formed "for the purpose of making suggestions and expressing the opinions of the Colonists upon matters relating to the welfare of the proposed Colony" being established by the Canterbury Association in Canterbury New Zealand. The other members of the Society's first Committee of Management were Guise Brittan (Chairman), James FitzGerald, Rev Dr Thomas Rowley, Henry Phillips, Henry Sewell, Conway Lucas Rose and Edward Ward (brother of Crosbie Ward), who was appointed secretary of the society. After elections on 18 July 1850 C L Rose and Rev Dr Thomas Rowley were replaced on the Committee by Leslie Lee, Charles Maunsell, John Watts Russell, Henry John Tancred, James Townsend and Felix Wakefield; however, Lee and Sewell immediately vacated their appointments.Minute Book of the Society of Canterbury Colonists, April 1850 to December 1851, pages 2,3 and 23Press, 15 December 1900, page 4
Later in 1850 Campbell fell out with the Society of Canterbury Colonists.Lyttelton Times, 12 February 1853, page 10 On 17 August 1850 Edward Gibbon Wakefield wrote to John Robert Godley, calling Campbell a "mere self-seeker, but hardly a respectable, perhaps a very discreditable one: all wrong about money-matters, and very incompetent to boot" and advising Godley to keep Campbell "at full arms length".The Founders of Canterbury, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, page 316
On 1 November 1851 the Lyttelton Times (under the editorship of James FitzGerald) reported that Campbell:Lyttelton Times, 1 November 1851, page 4 "joined the Canterbury scheme... in the hope of obtaining appointment of Resident Magistrate in the settlement; he professed himself a warm advocate of the plan of the colony, and announced his intention of purchasing land largely; he even took cabins in , which were retained for him for a considerable time; he was in constant communication with the colonists for many weeks; and [when] he was not recommended to the appointment he wished to obtain, or any other appointment,... he ceased to frequent the colonists' rooms in London, gave up his cabins, bought no land, and in a short time after the sailing of the first four ships, he left England, and was lost sight of until he turned up in Auckland."
Campbell boarded the Victory in London on 10 October 1850, arriving in Auckland on or about 1 February 1851.Daily Southern Cross, 4 February 1851, page 2 He was accompanied on the voyage by his wife, son Francis Eastwood Campbell, his daughter Blanche Emily and a servant.New Zealander, 5 February 1851, page 2
Controversial commissionership appointments Campbell came to New Zealand with recommendations from the British government. On 27 September 1851 Governor of New Zealand George Grey appointed him as a Magistrate of the Province of New Munster, and to the three separate commissionerships within the "Middle District of the Middle [i.e. South] Island": Commissioner of Crown Lands under the Crown Lands Ordinance (excluding the Canterbury District), Commissioner for hearing claims under the New Zealand Company's Land Claimant's Ordinance and Commissioner for investigating and reporting upon claims to Land under the Land Claims Ordinance.Government Gazette of the Province of New Munster, vol 4, number 25, 30 September 1851, pages 155 & 185Blue Book of Statistics for the Province of New Munster, 1851, NM 11/03 pages, 78 & 79Lyttelton Times, 11 October 1851, page 6Lyttelton Times, 18 October 1851, page 4 As a result of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passing the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852NZ Constitution Act 1852 the Provinces of New Zealand came into effect on 17 January 1853.Government Gazette of the Province of New Munster, vol 1, number 2, 17 January 1851, page 1 The boundaries of the Canterbury Province were gazetted on 28 February 1853 and Campbell then became the "Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Province of Canterbury, exclusive of the Canterbury Block"Government Gazette of New Munster, volume 6, number 7, 28 February 1853, pages 1 & 2New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, 30 April 1853, page 4