Rt Hon Sir James Alexander Campbell, PC, DL

JAMES ALEXANDER CAMPBELL

Elder son of Sir James Campbell of Stracathro, at one time Lord Provost of Glasgow, and one of the founders of the firm of J. & W. Campbell & Co., the late Parliamentary representative of Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities was born in George Square in 1825. and educated at Glasgow High School and University, and was himself connected with his father's business till 1876, when he succeeded to his father's estate of Stracathro. In those early days he was the first Secretary of St. George's Parish Sabbath School Society, founded in 1847, and of the Glasgow Sabbath School Association. He was an elder in the Barony Church under the great Dr. Norman Macleod, and took a keen interest in the Y.M.C.A. He inaugurated the fund for the restoration of Glasgow Cathedral with a gift of £1,000, and was chairman of the executive committee. As a member of the General Assembly for many years, he acted as convener of the Endowment Scheme Committee, and of the Committee on Statistics, and on the first election of Glasgow School Board in 1872 he was chosen deputy-chairman. He became a member of Glasgow University Council in 1859, and in 1865 was appointed convener of the committee charged with the raising of funds for building and maintaining the new University on Gilmorehill. This post he held till 1894. As Assessor to two Rectors and two Chancellors he was a member of the University Court from 1869 till 1884, when he received the degree of LL.D. After two unsuccessful efforts to enter Parliament as member for Glasgow, he was in 1880, on Lord Watson's elevation to the Bench, elected member of Parliament for Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities, and held the seat uninterruptedly till the end of the Parliament of 1900. As a Conservative he was of course opposed to the policy of his brother, the late Right Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister, and his work was of less polemical kind. Among his Parliamentary services he acted on most of the Commissions of his time appointed to enquire into Scottish Educational Endowments, the constitution of the Scottish Universities, and the like, and in this way accomplished a large amount of unostentatious work. His worth was recognised by his appointment as a Privy Councillor. Much to the regret of his constituents he represented so well, he retired from Parliament at the General Election in 1905.

Apart from his political connection, Mr. Campbell was a Deputy-Lieutenant for the counties of Lanark and Forfar, and LL.D. of St. Andrews University. At his seat of Stracathro, near Brechin, he owned some 4,000 acres, and the place is interesting from the fact that there, according to one account, John Balliol was despoiled of his short-lived royalty by Edward I. of England.

Mr. Campbell married in 1854, Ann, daughter of Sir S. Morton Peto, Bart., the well-known railway contractor, by whom he was the father of one son and three daughters, but he became a widower in 1887. He himself died at Stracathro after a lingering illness, 9th May, 1908, a fortnight later than his brother.

• Wikipedia contributors. "James Alexander Campbell (politician)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 262