A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Campbell, Donald
CAMPBELL. (Rear-Admiral, 1846. f.-p., 27; h-p., 29.)
Donald Campbell, born in 1788, is eldest son of the late Colin Campbell, Esq., of Auchendoun, co. Argyle; brother of Lieut. Duncan Fred. Campbell, R.N. (1826), who died in 1837, and of two military officers, who both lost their lives in the active service of their country, the one in consequence of the wounds he had received as Senior-Captain of the 59th Regt., when landing with the grenadiers of that corps at Java in 1811 – the other from the effects of the Walcheren fever; and uncle, by marriage, of Commanders Henry Hope, and John Elliot, Bingham, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 4 June, 1791, as A.B., on board the Assistance 50, Capt. Lord Cranstoun, in which ship he served in the Channel until discharged in Sept. following. He re-embarked, in 1793, on board the Otter 10, Capt. Jas. Hardy; became Midshipman, on 20 Oct. in the same year, of the Scorpion 18, Capt. Thos. Western, under whom, on proceeding to the West Indies, he captured, among other vessels, La Victoire French privateer, of 18 guns; and was afterwards transferred in succession to the Swiftsure 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Wm. Parker (in which he was present at the unsuccessful attack upon Leogane, St. Domingo, 22 March, 1796), and Venerable 74, bearing the flag in the North Sea of Admiral Duncan. In 1797 Mr. Campbell joined, as Acting-Lieutenant, the Russel 74, Capt. Henry Trollope, and, after participating in the battle of Camperdown, was confirmed by the Admiralty 4 Jan. 1798. His next appointment was, 26 Oct. 1798, to the Galatea 32, Capt. Hon. Geo. Byng, on the Irish station, where, during a dark and stormy night in the winter of 1800, he was, with a crew of six volunteers, hoisted in a boat from off the booms of the ship to take possession of El Pensée Spanish letter-of-marque, carrying 20 men, whom for 10 days he had the onerous duty of keeping in subjection. On 15 Oct. 1802, he obtained the First-Lieutenancy of the Carysfort 28, Capts. Geo. Mundy and Robt. Fanshawe, in the boats of which frigate he captured a French letter-of-marque on the coast of Norway in 1803. He afterwards accompanied a large convoy to the West Indies, and subsequently to his appointment, 20 Feb. 1805, to the command of the Tobago schooner, signalized himself in a successful attack made in company with the Curieux sloop on two merchantmen, lying for protection under the batteries at Barcelona, on the coast of Caraccas. Having assumed, 18 Sept. 1805, the acting-command of the Lily 18, Capt. Campbell, in the spring of 1806, had the good fortune, after a long chase, to capture the Leander, of 22 guns and 220 men, with General Miranda on board, returning from a vain endeavour to rear the standard of independence in South America. In the second and equally impropitious attempt which Miranda, owing to the assistance of Sir Alex. Cochrane, was induced to make, Capt. Campbell, as the Naval Commander-in-Chief of the expedition, acquitted himself of his responsible charge with all the accustomed gallantry and judgment of a British officer. He subsequently, for his general good conduct and attention to the interests of Trinidad, received the public thanks of the Governor, Council, and merchants; but, in consequence of some mismanagement at head-quarters, he does not appear to have been officially promoted until confirmed, 4 May, 1807, in the command of the Pert 16, to which sloop he had been appointed on 30 of the preceding Jan. On 16 Oct. following he was unfortunately wrecked, and lost 12 of his crew, in a hurricane off the island of Margarita, a disaster, however, of which a subsequent court-martial most honourably acquitted him. Capt. Campbell’s ensuing appointments were – 13 Sept. 1809, to L’Espiègle 16, in which he convoyed two ships to the West Indies – 29 April, 1810, by exchange, to the Port d’Espagne sloop, on the latter station – and, 22 Sept. 1810, to the Rosamond 18, employed successively in defending the trade of Trinidad, conveying a mail and some specie from Jamaica to England, escorting various fleets of merchantmen, and protecting the fisheries on the coast of Labrador and the north shores of Newfoundland. He attained Post-rank 1 Aug. 1811, but did not leave the Rosamond until 28 May, 1814. He afterwards, from 1822 to 1832, officiated as an Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard; and on 1 Oct. 1846, was made a Flag officer.
Rear-Admiral Campbell, who is Deputy-Lieutenant for Argyle, married, first, in 1808, Anne Irvin, daughter of the late Rear-Admiral Sir Chas. Douglas, Bart., by whom, who died in 1815, he had, with two daughters, a son, the present Commander Colin Yorke Campbell, R.N.; and, secondly, 19 Aug. 1819, Isabella, daughter of John Campbell, Esq., of Craigmore, co. Argyle, by whom he has issue seven sons and four daughters. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.