Sir George Campbell, , DCL (1824 – 18 February 1892) was a Scottish member of the Indian Civil Service, holding a variety of administrative positions, acting as a judge of the High Court, Calcutta, and rising at the end of his career to the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. He was a barrister, and author on Irish and Indian land tenure, and on the government of India. He was a

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. For example, while the political systems ...

politician and, post-India, for seventeen years member of parliament for Kirkcaldy Burghs.

Biography

George Campbell was born in 1824, the eldest son of Sir George Campbell, of Edenwood, whose brother became the 1st Baron Campbell. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

. He was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service from Haileybury in 1842, and, making the voyage round the Cape in a P. and O. Steamer, arrived in India on the 25th December 1842. He served in Rohilkhand in subordinate revenue and judicial appointments from 1843 to 1846; was in charge of several districts and political Divisions of the Cis-Sutlej states from 1846 to 1851, and was mentioned with special praise by Lord Dalhousie. While on furlough from 1851 to 1854 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 ...

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

in 1854, and became an Associate of the Court of Queen's Bench, and published ''Modern India'' (dedicated to his uncle, then Lord Chief Justice of England) and ''India as it may be''. He married in 1854 while at home. He was Magistrate-Collector of Azimghur, 1854; Commissioner of Customs,

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an Presidencies and provinces of British India, administrative region in British Raj, British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Cede ...

, 1855; Commissioner of the Cis-Sutlej states, 1855-7: took an active part as Civil Commissioner in some events of the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

and was present at several engagements; was Personal Assistant to Lord Canning, 1857-8: and judicial and financial Commissioner of Oudh, 1858. It was unusual promotion that brought him from Oudh to be a Judge of the High Court, Calcutta, 1863-66. He was President of the Orissa Famine Commission, 1866-67, and Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, 1867-8. While on furlough in 1868-70 he became a candidate for Dumbartonshire in the Liberal interest, but retired from his candidature before the general election: he then published his work on Irish Land Tenure, and was made a

Doctor of Civil Law Doctor of Civil Law (DCL; ) is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees. At Oxford, the degree is a higher doctorate usually awarded on the basis of except ...

of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal

From 1871 to 1874 George Campbell was Lieutenant-Governor of

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

. His appointment was, as he has himself recorded, a surprise. He was on furlough and, "failing anything that he cared for," on the eve of retirement. Late in the autumn of 1870, he received the offer from the Secretary of State for India, the Duke of Argyll, between whom and the

Governor-General of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the emperor o ...

, Lord Mayo, the selection was arranged. An early issue for the new Lieutenant-Governor was unrest amongst the

Santal people The Santal (or Santhal) are an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic-speaking Munda peoples, Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal in terms of population and are also found ...

, who had grievances about land tenure and the imposition of

rack-rent Rack-rent denotes two different concepts: # an excessive rent. # the full rent of a property, including both land and improvements as if it were subject to an immediate open-market rental review. The second definition is equivalent to the econom ...

s, arising inter alia from the extension of Government of India Acts to Santal villages. Campbell negotiated powers to appoint officers to make a settlement of land rights issues, to restore dispossessed tenants, to settle rents and to record the customs and usages of the people. Regulations were made to introduce a usury law limiting the accumulation of interest on debts, and to provide some discretion of Government to introduce or withdraw the application of laws as found desirable from time to time. Campbell was responsible for provincial finance reform, devolving responsibility for the control of expenditure to local government, where previously it had been under the control of central government. He introduced The Bengal Road Cess Act of 1871, which imposed a property-based tax, the revenues of which were dedicated to the improvement of, primarily, road infrastructure, and the budgets for which were under local control. Other transport innovation of his time included the establishment of Port Trust Commissioners for the port of

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, who effected considerable improvements to port infrastructure, efficiency and revenues raised; and the letting of a contract for the manufacture of the first Howrah Bridge, a pontoon structure, linking

Howrah Howrah (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively ...

and

. The early period of his office saw three events speaking to opposition to the Raj. On 20 September 1871, John Paxton Norman, acting chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court was assassinated, stabbed to death by an Indian Wahabi, Mohammad Abdullah, in what appears to have been a political act. On 8 February 1872, the

, Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, was assassinated, again by stabbing, by an apparently disgruntled convict, Sher Ali Afridi, a former Afghan soldier who had been convicted for murdering a relative. Sandwiched between these two events, a punitive expedition was mounted to rescue British subjects captured by members of the

Mizo people The Mizo people, historically called the Lushais, are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group primarily from Mizoram in northeastern India. They speak Mizo, one of the state's official languages and its lingua franca. Beyond Mizoram, sizable Mizo commu ...

- called Lushais - and to convince the hill tribes of the region that they had nothing to gain and everything to lose by placing themselves in a hostile position towards the British Government. During his tenure the Pabna Disturbances occurred. With his proclamation on 4 July 1873 during the Pabna Peasant Uprisings, guaranteeing government support of peasants against excessive

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

demands he ensured that the protest remained peaceful, at the same time antagonising the landlords and his namesake

George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll George John Douglas Campbell, 8th and 1st Duke of Argyll (30 April 1823 – 24 April 1900; styled Marquess of Lorne until 1847), was a Scottish people, Scottish polymath and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal statesman. He made a significant geological ...

at that time Secretary of State for India. A contemporary assessment of Campbell and his time leading Bengal notes that he represented a revolution of root-and-branch administration; but at the same time, left Bengal with very little goodwill, because of the uncompromising nature of his temper, his contentious tone, his tendency to disputation, and an unwillingness to compromise. Whilst he stood foremost amongst the Bengal Lieutenant-Governors, he was the least popular.

Post-India career

George Campbell was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy Burghs from 1875 to his death in 1892. Campbell's biographers in the

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

assert that "his failure as a politician was complete": He published a number of major works in the post-India period of his life, as well as contributions in the ''Quarterly Ethnological Journal'' and the ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal''.

Family, death

Campbell married, in 1853, Laetitia Maria Vibart, daughter of John Gowan Vibart, of the Bengal civil service, and left several children. Lady Campbell died in London 21 October 1901, aged 68. Their eldest son, Major George Campbell (ca. 1861–1902), died while serving with the 8th King's Regiment in the

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

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. George Campbell contacted

influenza Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...

and died on 18 February 1892 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, where he was buried.

Works

*
Modern India
' (1852) *
India As It May Be
' (1853) *
The Irish Land
' (1869) *
Specimens of Languages of India
' (1874) - as editor *
A Handy Book on the Eastern Question
' (1876) *
The Afghan Frontier
' (1879) *The Tenure of Land in India, in
Systems of Land Tenure in Various Countries
' pp.213-290 (1881) *
The British Empire
' (1887) *
The American People, or, The Relations Between the White and the Black
' (1889) *''Memoirs of my Indian Career'' (1893) - published posthumously, edited by Charles E. Bernard
volume I

volume II

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, George 1824 births 1892 deaths Lieutenant-governors of Bengal Members of the Council of India Scottish Liberal Party MPs UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Fife constituencies Scottish knights Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India 19th-century Scottish politicians Scottish barristers Scottish civil servants British civil servants in British India