Campbell's family have been farmers in Africa since 1713, when an ancestor of his, a German-born sea captain, started farming in the present-day Western Cape.
[1] During the early 1970s, Campbell, a SADF captain, was involved in the Rhodesian Bush War that pitted Rhodesia's predominantly white government against communist-backed nationalist guerrillas.
[2] The 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) farm near Chegutu (named Hartley until 1982), located 80 miles (130 km) south-west of Harare, employed around 500 people and was a centre of agriculture, wildlife and tourism.
In 1999, 19 years after Zimbabwe's independence, the government declared that it had "no interest" in the Mount Carmel estate, and granted Campbell full ownership of the land.
[1] The following year, however, as Robert Mugabe's land reform programme gathered pace, between 20 and 30 black men entered the estate, and refused to leave.