Thomas Campbell (Australian politician)

Thomas Joseph Campbell (1845 - 6 November 1885) was a politician in colonial Queensland.

[3][4] In August 1883 at a public meeting in Mackay, Queensland, Campbell condemned the policies of the then Premier, Sir Thomas McIlwraith, and informed those present that he had great faith in Sir Samuel Griffith who was subsequently elected Premier of Queensland in November 1883.

[6][7] As had occurred on a previous occasion when a member was declared insolvent, it was thought proper for the Queensland Parliament to move that the seat be declared vacant by reason of the insolvency of the member.

On 4 August 1885 the then Premier, Samuel Griffith, moved: "That the seat of Thomas Campbell hath become and is now vacant by reason of the insolvency of the said Thomas Campbell since his election and return to serve in this House as one of the members for the electoral district of Cook."

According to The Gympie Times, "he had been laid up at the Imperial Hotel for three days with an attack of asthma, but on Friday he was seized with convulsive fits, which continued until his death, the cause of which is said to have been Bright's disease" and that he was "a fine scholar and a man of great natural ability and application - as is shown by the fact that whilst fulfilling his responsible scholastic duties, he, quite unaided, managed to qualify himself for admission to the bar".

Thomas Campbell's headstone at West End Cemetery, 2012
Wife Mary (née Hanley), circa 1915