Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Campbell, John (1802-1877)
CAMPBELL, Sir JOHN (1802–1877), Indian official, was the eldest son of John Campbell of Lochend, by Annabella, daughter of John Campbell of Melfort, and was born at Kingsburgh in the island of Skye in 1802. He was gazetted an ensign in the 19th regiment in 1819, but he entered the East India Company's service in 1820, and on 5 April was appointed a lieutenant in the 41st Madras native infantry, and was stationed in various cantonments in the Madras presidency until his promotion to the rank of captain in 1830. In 1834 his regiment was ordered to quell an insurrection among the hill tribes in the province of Kimedy in Orissa, and on the death of Major Barclay, Campbell commanded the regiment with great success. His knowledge of Orissa caused him to be again employed in the Goomsoor war of 1836-7, and at the end of this war he was placed in civil charge of the Khonds, or hill tribes of Orissa, with special instructions to suppress the practices of human sacrifice and female infanticide. Campbell soon obtained a marvellous control over them, and, without resorting once to the use of troops, managed to save the lives of hundreds of destined victims by a consistent policy of expelling from the hills all refractory village headmen, and by refusing to trust to native agents. In 1842 he accompanied his old regiment, the 41st M.N.I., to China as senior major, and for his services there he was promoted lieutenant-colonel and made a C.B. in December 1842. After his return to Madras he commanded his regiment in cantonments for five years. Meanwhile the Khonds were not prospering under his successor in Orissa, Captain Macpherson, who had entirely changed Campbell's policy, and preferred to rely upon the influence of their headmen, whom he recalled to their villages, and in one of them, named Sam Bye, an especial foe of Campbell's, he placed particular confidence. Disturbances broke out, and in 1847 Campbell was ordered to supersede Captain Macpherson and to take up his old appointment. He at once resumed his old system of government, the headmen and Sam Bye were again expelled, and he ruled the Khonds in his old absolute fashion. In 1849 he had to go to the Cape for his health for two years; in 1853 he was promoted colonel, and in 1855, when he was on the eve of obtaining his colonel's allowances, he finally resigned his appointment, and returned to Scotland after an absence of thirty-six years. Campbell took up his residence at Edinburgh, and on 28 Nov. 1859 he was promoted major-general. In 1861 he published, for private circulation only, a narrative of his operations in Orissa, which was so greatly appreciated that in 1864 he published his 'Personal Narrative,' in which he deplored Macpherson's 'mistakes in judgment.' His book was immediately followed by one by Macpherson's brother, who warmly contested many of Campbell's statements. The controversy created some excitement, and drew such attention to Campbell's undoubted services that on the enlargement of the order of the Star of India and its division into three classes in 1866, he was made a K.C.S.I. In 1867 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and in 1872 general, and in December 1877 he died at Edinburgh.
[See The Campbells of Melfort, by M. O. C., London, 1882; for his Indian services see Narrative of Major-general John Campbell, C.B., of his Operations in the Hill Tracts of Orissa for the Suppression of Human Sacrifice and Infanticide, printed for private circulation, 1861; a Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years' Service among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan, for the Suppression of Human Sacrifice, by Major-general John Campbell, C.B., 1864; Memorials of Service in India, from the correspondence of the late Major Samuel Charters Macpherson, C.B., edited by his brother, William Macpherson; and Orissa, by W. W. Hunter, M.D.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.51
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 387 | ii | 16 | Campbell, Sir John (1802-1877): for 1877 read 1878 |
| 388 | i | 26-27 | for on the enlargement read in 1869 after the enlargement |
| 31 | for in December 1877 read on 21 April 1878 |