[2] His father was a strong Scottish patriot who was said to dislike "even the idea of living south of the border", but was persuaded by an attractive job offer to do so.
[1] Campbell Adamson was sent to Rugby School, and then went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge[2] where he read economics under John Maynard Keynes.
[1] As the war was coming to an end, Adamson took a post in industry as a management trainee for steelmaker Baldwins based in south Wales.
Once trained he became general manager of the Spencer Steelworks at Llanwern; the steel industry was undergoing major changes at the time due to nationalisation and Baldwins merged with Richard Thomas in 1948 as part of the 'Steel Company of Wales'.
Adamson was in charge of labour relations and his method of fair negotiation with the trade unions gave him a reputation which extended outside the steel industry.
[12] Late in the campaign, Adamson held talks with Trades Union Congress general secretary Victor Feather to negotiate a voluntary productivity, prices and incomes policy.
When the detailed proposals were unveiled in October 1970, Adamson gave a welcome for the principle while observing that they were more far-reaching than the CBI's suggestions on enforceability of agreements.
[20] With the Industrial Relations Act coming into effect, at the beginning of August 1972 Adamson agreed with Victor Feather of the TUC to set up an independent conciliation and advice service.
[21] Through 1973 the government, CBI and TUC tried to establish a working relationship which suited all, but were unable to do so before the economic effects of the oil price rise caused profound disruption to the British economy.
[26] When the miners had converted their overtime ban into an all-out strike, Prime Minister Edward Heath called a snap general election.
[28] The next day's edition of The Guardian led with a report of the speech headlined "CBI slips an Ace into Wilson's hand", and it had wide publicity in other newspapers.
[29] CBI President Sir Michael Clapham dissociated the organisation from Adamson's view, and other industrialists were heavily critical.
[31] In the meantime the election resulted in the surprise defeat of Edward Heath; the incoming government swiftly abolished the Industrial Relations Act.
According to George Clark, the political correspondent of The Times, Adamson's remarks, made just two days before the election, "caused dismay in the Conservative camp".
[4] In June 1974, a group of 20 senior industrialists asked the new President of the CBI Ralph Bateman for reforms in policy making including more control over the confederation's paid administrators.
He was opposed to the proposal for a National Enterprise Board,[36] and at a meeting with Benn on 12 February 1975 outlined five points of concern about the Industry Bill being prepared by the Department.
[37] In June 1975 Adamson announced to the CBI grand council that he would resign and leave office in mid-1976; it was briefed that his departure was unconnected to the remarks about the Industrial Relations Act.
[18] In December 1979 Abbey National sponsored and hosted an exhibition set up by the British Youth Council (then led by Peter (now) Lord Mandelson) aimed at promoting good race relations, with Adamson saying that the society agreed with it and wanted to attract young people to invest with them.
[42] By the late 1980s Adamson had decided that the way forward for Abbey National was to abandon its status as a mutual society and turn itself into a public limited company where it could compete with the banks.
[4] In 1980 Adamson chaired the 'Study Commission on the Family', an independent body set up with finance from the Leverhulme Trust which looked into the effects of marital breakdown on society.
[44] So interested was he in the subject that in 1984 he set up the full-time Family Policy Studies Centre charity, and recruited future MP Malcolm Wicks as its director.