Lieutenant-General Sir William Pitcairn Campbell (or Pitcairn-Campbell), (20 June 1856 – 22 September 1933) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

General 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 ...

Early life

He was the son of James Pitcairn Campbell and his wife, Eleanor (née Eyre), of Burton Hall,

Neston Neston is a town and civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, in Cheshire, England. It is part of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The village of Parkgate is located to the north west and the villages of Little Neston and Nes ...

. He had two elder sisters, Eliza and Georgina. He was educated at

Windlesham House School Windlesham House School is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 4 to 13 on the South Downs, in Pulborough, West Sussex, England. It was founded in 1837 by Charles Robert Malden and was the first boys' preparatory schoo ...

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

Military career

William Campbell was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1875. He served with the Mounted Infantry Camel Corps in Sudan between 1884 and 1885. His battalion served in South Africa between 1899 and 1901 during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

. At the Battle of Talana Hill he was wounded and his commanding officer was killed. As second in command, he took command of his battalion and was part of the garrison besieged at Ladysmith. He was subsequently promoted to

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

in command of the 1st Battalion on 25 January 1900. He was Aide-de-camp to King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

from 1900 to 1907 and was made a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in the King's Birthday Honours of 1906. He was appointed Commander 3rd Brigade in 1904 and General Officer Commanding

5th Division In military terms, 5th Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 5th Division (Australia) *5th Division (People's Republic of China) * 5th Division (Colombia) *Finnish 5th Division (Continuation War) * 5th Light Cavalry Division (France) *5th Mo ...

in 1909. He moved on to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Command from 1914 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command from 1916; he retired in 1918. He received his knighthood in 1915 through promotion to Knight Commander in the Order of the Bath. In 1916, he was appointed Colonel of the

Highland Light Infantry The Highland Light Infantry (HLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881. It took part in the First and Second World Wars, until it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 to form the Royal Highland Fus ...

, succeeding General Sir Henry Hildyard.

Family

In 1888 a fellow infantry officer, Major Gilbert, who had been serving in India named him as

co-respondent In English law, a co-respondent is, in general, a respondent to a petition, or other legal proceeding, along with another or others, or a person called upon to answer in some other way. 7.4.19 Divorce More particularly, since the Matrimonial Ca ...

in the divorce case against his wife. The following year, he and Edith Gilbert (née Prothero) married and went on to have one daughter.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, William 1856 births 1933 deaths British Army lieutenant generals Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British Army generals of World War I King's Royal Rifle Corps officers British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British Army personnel of the Second Boer War People educated at Windlesham House School