Dictionary of Indian Biography/Campbell, Sir George
CAMPBELL, SIR GEORGE (1824–1892)
I.C.S. : son of Sir G. Campbell of Edenwood, of the E.I. Co.'s Medical service : born in 1824 : educated at the Edinburgh New Academy, St. Andrew's, Madras College, and the University, Haileybury : went to India, 1842 : served in the N.W.P. and Cis-Satlaj States : and in 1849 in the Panjab after the annexation, which he had advocated in the Mofussilite newspaper. While on furlough he was called to the bar from the Inner Temple, 1854, and wrote Modern India, 1852 : in 1855, he assisted J. R. Colvin in the government of the N.W.P., and became Commissioner of the Cis-Satlaj States : was engaged in the mutiny of 1857,about Delhi, Agra, Cawpur, Lucknow : was provisional Civil Commissioner : accidentally captured three guns : wrote letters on the mutiny to the Times, and an official account of it for Lord Canning : was second Civil Commissioner for Oudh : appointed Judge of the High Court, Calcutta, 1862 : was head of the Commission on the Orissa famine of 1866–7 : Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces in Nov., 1867 : Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal from March, 1871, to April, 1874, when, on account of ill-health, he retired, having commenced the relief operations against the Bengal famine of 1873–4. His rule in Bengal was very energetic, being intended to rouse the Province from its alleged lethargy. He passed the District Road Cess Act, and gave a great impetus to Education, especially primary : K.C.S.I. in 1873 : M.P. for Kirkcaldy 1875–92, but was not successful as a politician : died at Cairo, Feb. 18, 1892 : wrote several works : the chief being The Ethnology of India, The Capital of India, Tenure of Land in India, The Eastern Question, besides papers on Ethnology and languages and land questions : he was D.C.L. of Oxford, 1870. His autobiography was, after his death, edited by Sir C. E. Bernard (q.v.)