Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

Archibald Bruce Campbell (21 January 1881 – 11 April 1966) was a British

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

and radio broadcaster, born in

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Biography

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served as paymaster-commander on , an armed merchant-cruiser in the South Atlantic. He survived its sinking off the island of

Islay Islay ( ; gd, Ìle, sco, Ila) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The isl ...

in October 1918 after it collided with a troopship in fog with the loss of several hundred people. He first began broadcasting for the BBC in 1935 with much success. He presented the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

light entertainment Light entertainment encompasses a broad range of television and radio programming that includes comedies, variety shows, game shows, quiz shows and the like. In Great Britain In the early days of the BBC virtually all broadcast entertainment wou ...

programme ''

Cabaret Cruise ''Cabaret Cruise'' is a live variety programme series broadcast 193739, 1946 and 1949 on BBC Television. It was one of several spin-offs from the BBC series ''Cabaret''. Its distinctive feature was that it was set on the fictional ship RMS '' ...

'' 193749. He was well known for appearing on the informational radio programme ''

The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was ...

'' from its inception in 1941. He made over 200 appearances on the programme until 1946 when he was allegedly dropped for suggesting that scientists instead of animals should be used as test subjects for the

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Second ...

atomic bomb tests. "Campbell was enormously popular with the public, which liked his direct and common-sense approach and regarded him as a personal friend". During the Second World War he also gave many talks to servicemen about the work of the merchant navy. On Thursday 12 Feb 1942 he was featured on the BBC Radio programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...

''. After the war he became a schoolteacher and magazine publisher (A. B. Campbell & Co.) but continued to broadcast for the BBC and Independent Television. He also wrote several books of biography, children's fiction and naval history, including ''When I Was in Patagonia'' (1953), and a play based on the ''

Mary Celeste ''Mary Celeste'' (; often erroneously referred to as Marie Celeste) was an American-registered merchant brigantine, best known for being discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The Cana ...

'' mystery.

Quotation

"It [i.e.,
The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was ...
] owed its popularity to the dramatic contrast of the three principal performers. Cyril Joad [ C.E.M. Joad ] (always known as Professor Joad though he never occupied a chair) was a quick-witted, bumptious disciple of
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
, who treated The Brains Trust as a competitive sport and a chance for showing off.
Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...
took the whole thing seriously, and was irritated to the point of peevishness by foolish answers, especially if they were propounded by the third member of the group, known as Commander Campbell. Julian could not see that some kind of
Sancho Panza Sancho Panza () is a fictional character in the novel ''Don Quixote'' written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, known as ''sanchismos'', ...
was a necessary contrast to himself and Joad. Campbell was a genial imposter, who had in fact been to sea and was said to have been a purser. He had been co-opted at the last minute because the man the BBC had invited couldn't be found, and it was said that Campbell was a man who could talk about anything. It turned out to be a stroke of genius. When we were asked to define the word 'allergy', he got in before Huxley and said "I suffer from an allergy. If I eat marmalade my head steams." Huxley and Joad were furious, but next week Commander Campbell said "I've had 200 letters from people whose heads steam when they eat marmalade". (
Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...
, ''The Other Half: a self-portrait'', London, 1977, pp. 47–48.)

References

* A full biographical sketch can be found in the

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

(DNB), Volume 9, 2004, pages 738–9.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, A. B. 1881 births 1966 deaths Royal Navy officers British radio personalities Place of death missing Royal Navy logistics officers People educated at St Olave's Grammar School