Campbell

Campbell, SIR COLIN, LORD CLYDE, one of the bravest soldiers and most distinguished generals of modern times, was born in Glasgow, 20th October 1792. His father was a carpenter, named Macliver, but Colin assumed the name of Campbell from his mother's brother, Colonel John Campbell, who in 1802 put him to school at Gosport. He was gazetted an ensign in 1808, and by 1813 had fought his way up to a captaincy, serving on the Walcheren expedition (1809), when he contracted a life-long ague, and through all the Peninsular war, where he was severely wounded at the siege of San Sebastian and the passage of the Bidassoa. He took part in the expedition to the United States (1814), and then passed nearly thirty years in garrison duty at Gibraltar, Barbadoes, Demerara, and various places in England, in 1837 becoming lieutenant-colonel of the 98th foot. For the brief Chinese campaign of 1842 he was made a C.B., and for his brilliant services in the second Sikh war (1848-49) a K.C.B., thereafter commanding for three years at Peshawur against the frontier tribes. On the outbreak of the Crimean war in 1854 he was appointed to the command of the Highland Brigade; the victory of the Alma was mainly his; and his, too, the splendid repulse of the Russians by the 'thin red line' in the battle of Balaklava. He was rewarded with a K.G.C.B., with a sword of honour from his native city, and with several foreign orders, and in 1856 was appointed Inspector-general of Infantry. When on 11th July 1857 the news reached England of the sepo Mutiny, Lord Palmerston offered him the command of the forces in India, he started next day for Calcutta. He reached it in August; on 17th November, with 4700 men, effected the final relief of Lucknow; and on 20th December 1858, having five months earlier been created Lord Clyde, announced to the viceroy that the rebellion was ended. Returning next year to England, he was made a field-marshal, and received a pension of £2000. He died 14th August 1863, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. See his Life by Lieutenant-general Shadwell (2 vols. 1881).