Frederick Campbell, 3rd Earl Cawdor

Cawdor was the eldest son of John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor, and his wife Sarah Mary, daughter of General the Hon. Henry Cavendish. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He was brought up on the family estates in south Wales and his coming of age in 1868 was a major event in the town of Llandeilo.[1] In 1874 he was appointed to be Deputy Lieutenant for the county of Inverness.[2]

Cawdor was Conservative Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire from 1874 to 1885. In 1885 the constituency was divided in two and Emlyn decided to contest the new West Carmarthenshire constituency, although most of his family property lay in the eastern part of the county. His chances there appeared to be negligible given the growing industrial population which had been a key factor in the triumph of the Liberal candidate, Edward Sartoris at the 1868 General Election. Emlyn was opposed by the other sitting member, the Liberal W.R.H. Powell, himself a former Conservative supporter, who had first declared his support for the Liberals at the 1874 election. Powell now proclaimed that he had a duty to the Liberal cause to oppose Emlyn.[3]

It was reported that the Conservatives were confident of their chances in West Carmarthenshire, on the grounds that it was largely an agricultural division.[4] However, the electorate had more than doubled in the county, and the 1885 electorate in the Western Division alone exceeded that of the combined county seat in 1880.[4] Powell's victory ended Emlyn's career in Carmarthenshire politics.

He succeeded in the earldom in 1898 and served briefly under Arthur Balfour as First Lord of the Admiralty. Lord Cawdor took a leading part in the Conservative opposition to Lloyd George's budget of 1909 and in drafting resolutions for the reform of the House of Lords in 1910.

He was also involved in Pembrokeshire local affairs, and as Chairman of the Great Western Railway from 1895 to 1905 greatly improved the service. In 1904 he was elected unopposed as a member of Pembrokeshire County Council to represent the Castlemartin ward.[5]

Lord Cawdor was an officer in the Carmarthen Artillery Militia, where he was lieutenant-colonel in command from 24 September 1892 until he retired on 5 November 1902.[6] During these years he was promoted to colonel and appointed an aide-de-camp to King Edward VII.

Lord Cawdor married Edith Georgiana Turnor, daughter of Christopher Turnor, on 16 September 1868. They had ten children. He died in February 1911, aged 63, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son Hugh. Lady Cawdor died in 1926.

• "Campbell, Frederick Archibald Vaughan" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1912.
• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl Cawdor