Sir Archibald Young Gipps Campbell KCIE CSI CBE (May 18, 1872 – October 30, 1957) was an Indian civil servant who served as the Law member of the executive council of the Governor of Madras from 1926 to 1928 and Chief Secretary of Madras 1925–1935 and made an important contribution towards the founding of Red Cross Food Parcels in the First World War.
His father, Archibald Samuels Campbell (1821–1899), had been a Fellow of mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge before going out to Jamaica where the family owned a number of plantations.
[2] He inherited his father's talent for mathematics: he won a scholarship to Trinity, where he went on to become a Smith's Prizeman[3] and Tyson Medallist.
Sir Robert Ball, then Lowndean Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, included his work in his lectures and described him as one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his time.
Archibald sat the examinations on graduation in 1895 and came second, only being beaten by Julius Mathison Turing, father of the famous Alan Turing FRS (the cryptologist who led the team who broke the Enigma code at Bletchley Park in the Second World War).
Alan Turing's biography mentions that his father was always bitter that Archibald Campbell had been promoted more quickly than he had when they were in India.
Archibald Young Gipps Campbell joined the ICS on 29 October 1896 and arrived in India to take up his post on 3 December of the same year.
He remained an active member of the Indian Civil Service for the next thirty-four years, ten months and seven days, finally retiring at the age of 58 in January 1935.
His rank was initially as an Assistant Collector and Magistrate in the Madras Presidency until his appointment as an Under-Secretary in the Revenue Department in November 1903.
It is true that he eventually reached a very high grade but his promotion record suggests that this was through hard work and long service, not any kind of preferment.
In January 1906 he was seconded to escort the Prince of Wales to Madras and in May of the same year he became Private Secretary to the Governor, Sir Arthur Lawley.
There he devoted his attentions to the improvement of roads and bridges and helping the farmers marketing their produce, but before he had made as much progress as he hoped he was recalled to Madras to become President of the Corporation.
In 1920 Irene decided that the pressures of Archibald's job and his other commitments meant that the family were better off in England and she moved back permanently.
Thereafter she may have come out to India to see him, possibly while the children were at boarding school, but he only came back on his extended periods of leave and then only very rarely.
He now sought to get involved in the army but his age worked against him, so instead he turned to his old Governor, Sir Arthur Lawley.
Sir Robert Hudson, Treasurer of the Commission, described his work as Financial Secretary as one of the best bits of finance he had ever seen.
Major Campbell, as he was then known, was thus directly responsible for inventing and implementing the Red Cross food parcel.
XYZ returned to India on 9 January 1917 as a Collector second grade in Krishna district based in Machilipatnam.
In 1922 he was involved in an inquiry into the excessive costs of government in Coorg and made the third member of the Board of Revenue.
Madras Province in the British Raj was larger than Tamil Nadu covering 142,000 square miles (370,000 km2) and having a population of 38 million people.
Archibald Campbell retired to England and spent a brief period during the Second World War in Jamaica winding down the plantations there.