ELDER son of Sir James Campbell of Stracathro, at one time
Lord Provost of Glasgow, and one of the founders of the firm of J. & W. Campbell
& Co., the late Parliamentary representative of Glasgow and Aberdeen
Universities was born in George Square in 1825. and educated at Glasgow High
School and University, and was himself connected with his father's business till
1876, when he succeeded to his father's estate of Stracathro. In those early
days he was the first Secretary of St. George's Parish Sabbath School Society,
founded in 1847, and of the Glasgow Sabbath School Association. He was an elder
in the Barony Church under the great Dr. Norman Macleod, and took a keen
interest in the Y.M.C.A. He inaugurated the fund for the restoration of Glasgow
Cathedral with a gift of £1,000, and was chairman of the executive committee. As
a member of the General Assembly for many years, he acted as convener of the
Endowment Scheme Committee, and of the Committee on Statistics, and on the first
election of Glasgow School Board in 1872 he was chosen deputy-chairman. He
became a member of Glasgow University Council in 1859, and in 1865 was appointed
convener of the committee charged with the raising of funds for building and
maintaining the new University on Gilmorehill. This post he held till 1894. As
Assessor to two Rectors and two Chancellors he was a member of the University
Court from 1869 till 1884, when he received the degree of LL.D. After two
unsuccessful efforts to enter Parliament as member for Glasgow, he was in 1880,
on Lord Watson's elevation to the Bench, elected member of Parliament for
Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities, and held the seat uninterruptedly till the
end of the Parliament of 1900. As a Conservative he was of course opposed to the
policy of his brother, the late Right Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, First
Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister, and his work was of less polemical
kind. Among his Parliamentary services he acted on most of the Commissions of
his time appointed to enquire into Scottish Educational Endowments, the
constitution of the Scottish Universities, and the like, and in this way
accomplished a large amount of unostentatious work. His worth was recognised by
his appointment as a Privy Councillor. Much to the regret of his constituents he
represented so well, he retired from Parliament at the General Election in 1905.
Apart from his political connection, Mr. Campbell was a
Deputy-Lieutenant for the counties of Lanark and Forfar, and LL.D. of St.
Andrews University. At his seat of Stracathro, near Brechin, he owned some 4,000
acres, and the place is interesting from the fact that there, according to one
account, John Balliol was despoiled of his short-lived royalty by Edward I. of
England.
Mr. Campbell married in 1854, Ann, daughter of Sir S. Morton
Peto, Bart., the well-known railway contractor, by whom he was the father of one
son and three daughters, but he became a widower in 1887. He himself died at
Stracathro after a lingering illness, 9th May, 1908, a fortnight later than his
brother.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)