Sir Alexander Campbell of Gartsford, Baronet

Wikipedia Biographical Summary

"Sir Alexander Campbell, 1st Baronet, GCB (20 August 1760 – 11 December 1824) was a senior officer of the British Army during the early nineteenth century. His long and varied career saw extensive action, including engagements in Europe during the American Revolutionary War, in India during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and subsequently in the Peninsular War as one of the Duke of Wellington's generals. Badly wounded during the Peninsular campaign, Campbell was rewarded with a knighthood and a baronetcy, later holding a number of prestigious military commands.

Alexander Campbell was born in 1760, the son of John and Isabella Campbell of Baleed, Perthshire. In 1776 at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, 16-year old Campbell purchased a commission in the Royal Regiment and by 1780 had become a captain, moving to the 97th Regiment of Foot. In 1781 the 97th was ordered aboard ships of the Channel Fleet for service as temporary Royal Marines and Campbell served at the Great Siege of Gibraltar and the Battle of Dogger Bank against the Dutch in the same year. He returned to Gibraltar the following year and remained there until the end of the siege in 1783, when the regiment was disbanded at Hillsea. Campbell was placed in reserve and soon afterwards married Olympia Morshead, with whom he would have three daughters and two sons before her early death in 1794. In 1787, Campbell secured a commission in a new regiment being raised for service in India, named the 74th Regiment of Foot, sailing in 1793.

In India Campbell rose rapidly through the ranks and by 1795 was a lieutenant colonel, serving in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799 under General Sir Arthur Wellesley and participating in the Battle of Seringapatam that concluded the campaign. In the aftermath of the victory, Campbell was detached from his regiment and served in a number of military administration posts in Southern India, including governor of Seringapatam in 1805. In 1804 his eldest son, John Morshead Campbell, had been killed at the Battle of Assaye and some months later Campbell had been stationed at the port city of Vizagapatam when it was attacked by a French squadron under Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois: Campbell directed the harbour's defences in the Battle of Vizagapatam, in which the French were driven off despite the loss of two East Indiaman merchant ships. In 1807, Campbell returned to Europe.

Campbell was appointed brigadier general and was stationed in Ireland, before joining Wellesley's army in Portugal during the Peninsular War in January 1809. Several months later he was wounded in the thigh at the Battle of Talavera, returning to Britain to recuperate. By January 1810 he was back with the army in Portugal as a major-general, commanding the British 6th Division at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro. Shortly afterwards however his health deteriorated and he returned to Britain. His second son, Allan William Campbell was killed in action in the Peninsular War, at the Battle of Sorauren in 1813. In 1812 Campbell was requested to act as Wellington's stand in at his investiture in the Order of the Bath and Campbell was himself inducted into the order later in the year. He was also made governor of the military forces on Mauritius and Île Bourbon remaining there as a lieutenant-general until they were returned to the French in 1816. In 1815, Campbell was transferred at the reformation of the Order of the Bath to be a Knight Grand Cross and was also given a baronetcy. In 1820 he was made governor of the military forces in the Madras Presidency and he married Elizabeth Anne Pemberton. The couple had a daughter and a son, but the son died in infancy and Campbell successfully applied to have the baronetcy extended to his grandsons. He died in 1824 at Madras and was buried there, the baronetcy passing to his grand son Alexander Thomas Cockburn."

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'Sir Alexander Campbell, 1st Baronet', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 September 2012, 09:40 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sir_Alexander_Campbell,_1...> [accessed 18 March 2013]

His burial plot inside St Mary's Church Madras reads as follows:
Sir Alexander Campbell, Bart., K.C.B., Commander in Chief of Forces in this Presidency, died 11 December 1824 and his wife Olympia died 24 December 1794.

By Stephen R Johnson 7th Jan 2014