In 1807 he was taken prisoner during the second battle of Buenos Ayres (Argentina); he was released and (after 75 weeks away from home) evacuated back to Ireland when the commanding officer Lieutenant-general John Whitelocke surrendered and agreed to withdraw from the River Plate and Montevideo (Uruguay).
[1][2] In 1810 he returned to Portugal with the 45th Regiment and, as part of the 3rd Division commanded by Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Picton, fought in the battles of Bussaco (September 1810), Sabugal (April 1811), Fuentes de Oñoro (May 1811), El Bodón (September 1811), Ciudad Rodrigo (January 1812), Badajoz (March – April 1812, where he was appointed as brigade major for Major-General Sir James Kempt's brigade), Salamanca (July 1812), and Buen Retiro Palace (Madrid, August 1812, where a significant French garrison was surrendered).
[1][2] Serving in the 3rd Division in the same brigade, now commanded by Major-general Sir Thomas Brisbane, he fought in the battles of Vitoria (June 1813), the Pyrenees (July – August 1813), Nivelle (November 1813), Nive (December 1813), Orthez (February 1814, where he was promoted to the rank of major), and Toulouse (April 1814).
"In 1840, Campbell published the book A British army, as it was, – is, – and ought to be, which recounts some of his experience in the Peninsular War and the Battle of Plattsburgh (see Bibliography below).
In Volume 1 of Excursions, Adventures, and Field-sports in Ceylon Campbell notes that, from the start of his service in the army, he was in the habit of keeping a journal.
However the night before the Battle of Talavera, thinking that he would be likely to die the next day and not wanting his journal to fall into enemy hands, he burnt it, and thus destroyed the record of events from the previous eight years.
[10] After Campbell returned from Ceylon (around 1823) he resided at Ravensdale Estate in the parish of Ballaugh on the Isle of Man,[11][12][13] where he was appointed as a magistrate.
The other members of the Society's first Committee of Management were Guise Brittan (Chairman), James FitzGerald, Rev Dr Thomas Rowley, Henry Phillips, Henry Sewell, Conway Lucas Rose and Edward Ward (brother of Crosbie Ward), who was appointed secretary of the society.
After elections on 18 July 1850 C L Rose and Rev Dr Thomas Rowley were replaced on the Committee by Leslie Lee, Charles Maunsell, John Watts Russell, Henry John Tancred, James Townsend and Felix Wakefield; however, Lee and Sewell immediately vacated their appointments.
On 1 November 1851 the Lyttelton Times (under the editorship of James FitzGerald) reported that Campbell:[23] "joined the Canterbury scheme... in the hope of obtaining appointment of Resident Magistrate in the settlement; he professed himself a warm advocate of the plan of the colony, and announced his intention of purchasing land largely; he even took cabins in Sir George Seymour, which were retained for him for a considerable time; he was in constant communication with the colonists for many weeks; and [when] he was not recommended to the appointment he wished to obtain, or any other appointment,... he ceased to frequent the colonists' rooms in London, gave up his cabins, bought no land, and in a short time after the sailing of the first four ships, he left England, and was lost sight of until he turned up in Auckland.
It is possible that Grey's antipathy towards the Canterbury Association led him to appoint Campbell in order to frustrate the plans of the Colonists and delay the settlement of claims and the issuing of pasturage licences.
"An editorial in the Otago Witness expressed similar views about Campbell and added that his "gross ignorance" and "hostility to the [Canterbury] scheme" made him "an object of derision, sorrow and dislike".
in early days, and ended by quarrelling with everyone and writing an insulting letter to Lord Lyttelton, after innumerable statements on his part had turned out to be perfectly false...
He is now going over to Akaroa to decide summarily certain claims of some of the old settlers there, and my husband intends to go over and watch what he is about; he can hardly help making mistakes, as he has no knowledge whatever of his subject... vexatious, underhand way of doing business... an overweening idea of his own importance..." Howard Jacobson, owner of the Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser (father of Ethel May Jacobson), later wrote:[52]"Colonel Campbell did not make things at all pleasant for the Canterbury Association settlers.
He was a disappointed man, having taken great interest in the foundation of the settlement when in London, and fully expected to be appointed first agent, a post that was afterwards given to Mr.
He located his office at Akaroa[56] (some 50 miles by bush track from the main settlement at Christchurch) and sometimes published instructions to Canterbury stock-owners in the Wellington Spectator" (i.e. in the New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, a Wellington publication).In February 1853 Campbell stood for election to the newly created office of Superintendent of the Canterbury Province.
[61] The New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian stated: "This seems to have acted very prejudicially to Colonel Campbell in the Christchurch District, where the declaration was made, and to have lost him his election.
Gerald Hensley points out that Campbell was "maintaining with a splendid inconsistency that he had not received the Governor's dispatch instructing him to do so, even while quoting parts of it in his long and argumentative letters.
John Hall stated Campbell was "even less qualified to be Registrar of Deeds, an office which particularly required to be filled by a person of business habits.
That this Council has learned with great surprise and regret that Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, after having been removed from the office of Commissioner of Crown Lands, has been appointed as Registrar of Deeds for this Province.
That, considering how largely the interest of individuals may be affected by the Acts of the Registrar, and the extensive evil which may result from incompetence or mal-administration: this Council are of opinion that that office ought to be entrusted only to some person possessing the fullest confidence of the public.
The Council are of opinion that the office of Registrar of Deeds is one which ought, if possible, be filled by a person having a legal education, and that for the purposes of economy its duties might for the present be most conveniently performed by the Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court.."Campbell refused to register any land deeds and, when the Provincial Council complained, Campbell "denounced them as calumniators and prepared to sue the Superintendent and executive on an extraordinary variety of grounds ranging from usurpation to illegal absence from the province... [and] that the whole provincial establishment was illegal"[64] In December 1854 (after George Grey had completed his first term as Governor of New Zealand) the central Government finally agreed to the removal of Campbell from office.