The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Campbell, Hon. Sir Thomas Cockburn
Campbell, Hon. Sir Thomas Cockburn, M.L.C., 4th Bart., of Gartsford, Ross-shire, is the second son of the late Sir Alexander Thomas Cockburn Campbell, 2nd Bart. (who in 1825 assumed the name of Campbell in addition to his patronymic Cockburn), by his second wife, Grace, daughter of Joseph Spence, of Birstwith, co. York. He was born at Exeter in 1845. On the death of his brother Sir Alexander, 3rd Bart., on Sept. 6th, 1871, he succeeded as 4th Bart. He was married at Albany, Western Australia (where his father was formerly resident magistrate), in 1870, to Lucy Anne, daughter of Arthur Trimmer and Mary Anne his wife, daughter of Captain Sir Richard Spencer, R.N., C.B., K.H., of Pooteness, Western Australia. He was for a number of years a nominee member of the old Legislative Council of Western Australia, and acted as Chairman of Committees of that body down to its dissolution, on the inauguration of the new Constitution in 1890. In 1889 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Albany electorate. In the early part of the year 1890 he was one of the delegates appointed to proceed to London, to afford information and assistance in the passing of the Constitution Bill, which had been shelved in the House of Commons the previous session. He took an active part in the efforts which eventuated in the passing of the Constitution Act, giving the local parliament complete control over the whole territorial area of the colony, his evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons creating considerable sensation. He was also a witness before the Colonisation Committee of the House of Commons. Sir Thomas was appointed president of the new Legislative Council, to which he had been nominated in Dec. 1890.