Sir Thomas Cockburn-Campbell, 4th Baronet (18 April 1845 – 27 September 1892) was an English-born journalist and politician in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. __NOTOC__

Early life

Cockburn-Campbell was born in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, the second son of Sir Alexander Thomas Cockburn-Campbell, second Baronet, and his wife, Grace, daughter of Joseph Spence. He was educated in England and at Heidelberg and travelled in Europe. Cockburn-Campbell left England for Queensland, Australia in 1864 where he worked with Augustus Gregory as a

chainman Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Two-dimensional space#In geometry, two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of ...

and later with other surveyors. In the late 1860s he went to Western Australia and took up farming; his father was resident magistrate at Albany, Western Australia. In 1871 he succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother Alexander Cockburn-Campbell.

Political career

In 1873 Cockburn-Campbell was nominated a member of the old Western Australian Legislative Council and became chairman of committees. He was for some time editor of the ''West Australian'' but retired in 1887 due to ill health and was succeeded by John Winthrop Hackett. In 1890 he was appointed one of the delegates sent to London to give information and assistance in connexion with the passing of the Western Australian constitution bill. He also gave evidence before the Colonization Committee of the House of Commons. In December 1890 Campbell became a member of the new Legislative Council and was elected its first president. He died at Perth, Western Australia on 27 September 1892. He had married in 1870 Lucy Anne, daughter of Arthur Trimmer, who survived him with two sons and four daughters. In 1882,

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

named '' Prostanthera campbellii'' in his honour.

Music

Sir Thomas composed a waltz "The Fair Maid of Perth" (1890) dedicated to Miss Margaret Brockman (Mrs P.A.Hope), published in London.

Family

Cockburn-Campbell is the great-great-grandfather of National Party MP

Merome Beard Merome Beard is an Australian politician, representing the electoral district of North West Central in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the National Party since 17 September 2022. Early life and career Beard is a great-great-gran ...

References

* *O. K. Battye,
Cockburn-Campbell, Sir Thomas (1845 - 1892)
, ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 3, MUP, 1969, pp 434–435 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockburn-Campbell, Thomas 1845 births 1892 deaths Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council Presidents of the Western Australian Legislative Council Burials at East Perth Cemeteries Australian newspaper editors 19th-century journalists English male journalists 19th-century English male writers The West Australian 19th-century Australian politicians Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom British emigrants to Australia