John Gordon Drummond Campbell (15 February 1864 – 11 January 1935) was a British barrister and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician who served from 1918 to 1922 as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Kingston-upon-Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

in Surrey.

Early life

He was the son of Colonel Archibald Neil Campbell of

Craignish Craignish (Scottish Gaelic, ''Creiginis'') is a peninsula in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. It lies around south of Oban, and north-west of Lochgilphead. The peninsula is around long, and is aligned along a north-east to south-west orie ...

and was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, from where he won a scholarship to

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

, gaining a first-class degree in classics. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1890, and was one of His Majesty's Inspector of Schools from 1892 to 1909. He worked for two or three years as educational adviser to King

Chulalongkorn Chulalongkorn ( th, จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as ''Phra Phuttha Chao Luang'' (พร� ...

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

, writing a book ''Siam in the Twentieth Century'' (1902).

Parliamentary career

A strong unionist and

tariff reform The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competitio ...

er, Campbell first stood for

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

at the January 1910 general election, when he was unsuccessful in the Mansfield division of Nottinghamshire, which was then a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. He contested the December 1910 election in the more-winnable Eccles division of Lancashire, but failed to oust the sitting Liberal MP Sir George Pollard. He won a seat on his third attempt, when he was elected at the 1918 general election as the

Coalition Unionist The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the United Kingdom coalition government (1916–1922), ...

MP for the

, replacing the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

George Cave who had been ennobled as

Viscount Cave A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

. In August 1921, Campbell was one of 31 Unionist MPs dissatisfied with the Liberal-led

Coalition Government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

who signed a manifesto pledging that after the next election they would hold themselves independent of any of the political parties on matters concerning the economy and finance. By late 1922, Unionist discontent at the coalition led to a meeting at the Carlton Club in October 1922 where the Unionists decided to withdraw from the coalition. The collapse of the government triggered the 1922 general election, when Campbell stood down from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, due to ill-health.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, John Gordon Drummond 1864 births 1935 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1918–1922 Members of Lincoln's Inn People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Politics of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames