A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Campbell, George Pryse
CAMPBELL. (Captain, 1821. f-p., 12; h-p., 32.)
The Honourable George Pryse Campbell is youngest son of the first Lord Cawdor, by Lady Caroline Howard, eldest daughter of Frederick, fifth Earl of Carlisle; brother of the present Earl Cawdor, who was so created 24 Sept. 1827; and nephew of the late Admiral Sir Geo. Campbell, G.C.B., who died 28 Jan. 1821.
This officer entered the Navy, 7 April, 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Culloden 74, Capt. Barrington Dacres, bearing the flag in the Channel of his uncle, Rear-Admiral Geo. Campbell, with whom he went soon afterwards to the Mediterranean in the Canopus 80, and returned to England on board the Ambuscade 32, in Jan. 1805. In April following he joined the Namur 74, Capt. Lawrence Wm. Halsted, one of Sir Rich. John Strachan’s squadron in his victorious conflict of 4 Nov. 1803 with the four line-of-battle ships that had escaped from the battle of Trafalgar. Mr. Campbell, who attained the rating of Midshipman on 19 Dec. in the same year, subsequently, in Jan. 1807, became attached to the Seahorse, of 42 guns and 281 men, Capt. John Stewart, stationed in the Mediterranean, where we find him, on the night of 5 July, 1808, contributing to the capture, after a memorably furious engagement and a loss to the Seahorse of 5 men killed and 10 wounded, of the Turkish man-of-war Badere Zaffer, mounting 52 guns, with a complement of 543 men, of whom 170 were slain and 200 wounded. Another ship, the Alis Fezan, of 26 guns and 230 men, was at the same time put to flight. From April, 1809, to March, 1810, Mr. Campbell was next employed in the Agincourt 64, and Princess of Orange 74, flag-ships in the Downs of Vice- Admiral G. Campbell, and, on 3 Sept. following, he became Acting Flag-Lieutenant to Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats in the Milford 74, off Cadiz. He received his first Admiralty commission 15 March, 1811; and, as a Lieutenant, was subsequently appointed – 27 June, 1811, to the Tartarus 20, Capt. John Pasco, on the North American station – 19 Dec. 1811, to the Belvidera 36, Capt. Rich. Byron, whose official praise he elicited for his able direction of that frigate’s main-deck stern-chasers on the occasion of her celebrated escape from a powerful squadron under Commodore Rodgers, after a long running fight and a loss of 2 men killed and 22 wounded, 23 June, 1812 – 4 Nov. 1813, as Flag-Lieutenant, in the Monmouth 64, to Vice-Admiral Thos. Foley, Commander-in-Chief in the Downs – and, 19 April, 1814, to the Royal Sovereign yacht, Capt. Sir John Poo Beresford, in which he conveyed Louis XVIII. to Calais. Having attained the rank of Commander 16 May, 1814, he was next, 5 May, 1818, appointed to the Racehorse 18, on the Mediterranean station. He acquired a Post-commission 27 Jan. 1821; and accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Campbell, who is Senior of 1821, formerly sat in Parliament for the counties of Cromartie and Nairn, N.B.; and was appointed, 24 Feb. 1831, Groom of the Chamber to King William IV., in which capacity he officiated at His Majesty’s funeral, 8 July, 1837. He married, 13 Oct. 1821, Charlotte, second daughter of General Isaac Gascoyne, M.P. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.