A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Campbell, John Norman
CAMPBELL, C.B., K.E.G. (Captain, 1827. f-p., 25; h-p., 23.)
John Norman Campbell entered the Navy, in June, 1799, as A.B., on board the Terrible 74, Capt. Wm. Wolseley, and continued to serve for many years on the Home station. He attained the rating of Midshipman in Dec. following; joined, in May, 1801, the Amethyst 36, Capts. John Cook, Henry Rich. Glynn, A. Campbell, and John Wm. Spranger; and, on 20 Dec. 1805, was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Helena 24, Capt. Jas. Andw. Worth, of which vessel he became a full Lieutenant 17 June, 1807. His next appointment was, 12 Aug. 1808, to be Flag-Lieutenant, in the Dreadnought 98, to Rear-Admiral Thos. Sotheby, on the coast of France, where he commanded a division of boats, and had 4 men wounded, at the capture of a vessel under the batteries near Rochelle in 1809, besides participating in many attempts on the enemy’s coast-trade. On 20 May, 1811, Mr. Campbell, who had been appointed, 12 June, 1810, to the Astrea, of 42 guns and 271 men, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg, contributed (while cruizing otf Madagascar, in company with the Phoebe and Galatea, frigates about equal in force to the Astrea, and 18-gun brig Racehorse) to the capture – after a long and trying action with the French 40-gun frigates Renommé, Clorinde, and Néréide, in which the Astrea had 2 men killed and 16 wounded – of the Renommé; and, on 25 of the same month, he was further present at the surrender of the Nereide, and of the settlement of Tamatave. We subsequently find him appointed, in the capacity of First-Lieutenant, – 13 April, 1811, to the Nisus 38, Capt. C. M. Schomberg, in the North Sea – 5 April, 1815, to the Snake 18, Capt. Joseph Gape, on the same station – 31 Oct. 1815, to the Phaeton 38, Capt. Fras. Stanfell, employed at the Cape of Good Hope – and, 3 April, 1818, to the Liverpool 50,, Capt. Fras. Augustus Collier. During the operations, in Dec. 1819, against the pirates of Ras-al-Khyma, in the Persian Gulf, Lieut. Campbell, in unison with Capt. Wm. Walpole, R.N., commanded the body of troops who were landed to assist the army, and proved himself beyond all praise by his able direction of a breaching-battery of 24-pounders, which played with vivid effect on the walls of the town, as well as by his subsequent and similar exertions against the almost impregnable fortress of Zaire.[1] From Nov. to Jan. 1821, and from March to May following, he was further employed, on the East India station, as Acting-Captain of the Dauntless 26, and Alligator 28, and he soon afterwards received the official notification of his promotion to the rank of Commander, which had taken place 28 Nov. 1820. He next, on 1 Jan. 1822, commissioned, at Cochin, the Samarang 28, and, returning home, paid that frigate off at Portsmouth in July of the same year. From that period he remained unemployed until appointed, 14 May, 1827, to the Albion 74, Capt. John Acworth Ommanney. On 21 Oct., the morning after the ensuing battle of Navarin, Capt. Campbell, who had been slightly wounded, was sent with a division of boats to board the two Turkish line-of-battle ships that had surrendered, on which occasion he received the swords of both the commanding officers.[2] As a reward for his conduct in the action, he was advanced to Post-rank on 22 of the same month – created a C.B. 13 Nov. following – and presented, in 1834, with the order of the Redeemer of Greece. Since 12 March, 1845, he has been in command of the Melampus 42, stationed on the south-east coast of America.
Capt. Campbell, in March, 1828, was nominated by the Lord High Admiral a member of the committee appointed to report on a series of experiments then about to be made as to the capabilities of some newly-invented guns and gun-carriages. He married, 23 May, 1838, Georgiana, only daughter of the late Geo. Martin, Esq., of the H.E.I.Co.’s service. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.