Campbell was born Colin Macliver, the eldest of the four children of John Macliver, a cabinetmaker in Glasgow, and Agnes Macliver (née Campbell).[1] His mother and one of his twin sisters died while he was still a boy. His only brother was killed fighting in the Peninsular War.[2] After he was educated at the Glasgow Grammar School, his uncle, Major John Campbell, took over his care and sent him to the Royal Military and Naval Academy at Gosport.[3]
The most oft-quoted story explaining Campbell's name change is that upon Colin's entry into the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot as an ensign in 1808, his uncle presented him to the Duke of York, who assumed the boy's surname was Campbell and had him enlisted in the Army under that name. This story was first promulgated during the Crimean War. The press were fascinated to find why he had changed his name, and rumours abounded that he was in fact the illegitimate son of Major Campbell, so Peter Macliver, a journalist and Colin's cousin, invented the story about the Duke of York. Not only was it highly unusual for an ensign to meet the commander-in-chief, the Duke of York, but Campbell was on the Isle of Wight, not in London when commissioned. Furthermore, General Robert Brownrigg, colonel of the regiment of the 9th Foot, wrote to the Duke of York prior to Campbell's commission, referring to the fifteen-year-old boy as "Mr Colin Campbell". Evidently, Campbell changed his name before being gazetted.[4]
Campbell was posted to Gibraltar in 1810 and fought at the Battle of Barrosa in March 1811, taking command of the 9th Foot's flank companies as the senior officer not hors de combat. His bravery was noted by General Sir Thomas Graham. Serving in his battalion's light company, he fought at the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813 and at the Siege of San Sebastián. Here, in the first assault on 25 July 1813, he led the forlorn hope and was wounded twice while leading a storming party.[1] He led the 9th Foot's light company at the Battle of the Bidassoa in October 1813 where he was wounded for the third time.[1] He was promoted to captain in the 7th Battalion 60th (Royal American) Regiment on 3 November 1813. Sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, he was too late to see action in the War of 1812 and soon returned to Europe suffering from his wounds.[7] Due to the contraction of the army after Battle of Waterloo, the number of Royal American battalions was cut back drastically. To avoid being put on half-pay Campbell transferred to the 21st Royal North British Fusiliers on 26 November 1818.[8] The regiment was sent first to Barbados and then to Demerara, where Campbell became aide-de-camp to the governor. His part in quelling the slave rebellion in Demerara in August 1823 is hazy. He is not recorded as joining in the reprisals against slaves pursued by his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Leahy, but he was on the court-martial which sentenced Reverend John Smith, the suspected instigator of the revolt, to death. He purchased his majority on 26 November 1825.[9]
His regiment returned to England and in 1828 was posted to Ireland. From late 1830 they were called upon to police the Irish Tithe War. Campbell purchased an unattached lieutenant-colonelcy on 26 October 1832[10] Campbell became commanding officer of the 9th Regiment of Foot on 8 May 1835[11] but then exchanged to become commanding officer of the 98th Regiment of Foot on 19 June 1835[12] and commanded that regiment at the Battle of Chinkiang in July 1842 during the First Opium War.[1] Promoted to colonel on 23 December 1842, he became commandant of Hong Kong at the end of that year.[1] He was appointed an aide-de-camp to the Queen on 23 December 1842[13] and a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 24 December 1842.[14]
Interior of the Sikandar Bagh after the Slaughter of 2,000 Rebels by the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Punjab Regiment. First Attack of Sir Colin Campbell in November 1857, Lucknow. Albumen silver print, by Felice Beato, 1858.
On 11 July 1857, at an early stage in the Indian Mutiny, Lord Palmerston offered Campbell the command of all British forces in India.[27] Promoted to the local rank of full general in India the same day,[31] he left England the next day and reached Calcutta in August 1857.[3] He relieved and then evacuated Lucknow in November 1857 and, after attacking and decisively defeating Tantia Tope at the Second Battle of Cawnpore in December 1857, he captured Lucknow again in March 1858.[27] He was promoted to the substantive rank of full general on 14 May 1858[32] and raised to the peerage as Baron Clyde, of Clydesdale in Scotland on 3 August 1858.[33] In Autumn 1858, faced with a further mutiny by the East India Company's European troops, who had not received their enlistment bounties, he used British troops to enforce discipline until the British Cabinet agreed to some concessions.[27] He continued in charge of the operations in India until all aspects of the revolt had died away and then returned to England in June 1860.[3]
There is a public house in Kilburn High Road, North West London, named after Sir Colin Campbell of the same name. It is an Irish pub but the building has operated as a tavern (in his name) for more than 100 years.[39]
Family
Campbell never married, or fathered any children.[27]
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