Walter Douglas Somerset Campbell

Captain Sir Walter Douglas Somerset Campbell, KCVO (16 June 1840 – 17 April 1919) was a British soldier and courtier who served as Groom in Waiting to three British sovereigns and as Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park.

Life

Walter Douglas Somerset Campbell was born on 16 June 1840, the son of Walter Frederick Campbell (1798–1855), of Islay and Woodhall, Lanark, MP, JP, DL, and his second wife Catherine, daughter of Stephen Thomas Cole and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Stanley.[1][nb 1] The Campbells were noted and well-connected land-owners in the Scottish highlands; the elder Walter Campbell inherited the lairdship of Islay from his grandfather in 1816 and sat as a Member of Parliament for Argyll; his first wife, Lady Eleanor Charteris (1796–1832), was the daughter of the 7th Earl of Wemyss and their son, John Francis, is remembered as a noted folklorist. Walter Frederick Campbell was nonetheless forced to sell Islay in 1847 to pay off enormous debts accrued during improvements to the island.[6]

After schooling at Charterhouse,[2] Campbell purchased a commission as an Ensign in the 79th Foot in June 1860 and within a month was transferred to the 72nd Foot.[7][8] He returned to his original regiment and in 1864 was promoted to Lieutenant, this time without purchase;[9] in 1877, he was promoted to Captain.[10] Three years later, Campbell was appointed an aide-de-camp to the Lieutenant-General and Governor-General of Ireland.[11] Later that year, Queen Victoria appointed him one of her grooms-in-waiting, in succession to his elder brother, John Francis, who had resigned the post.[12] The appointment was renewed by the Queen's son and successor, Edward VII, in 1901, and again by his successor George V in 1910. He was also Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park until he resigned in 1916. That year, he was made an Extra Groom-in-Waiting.[13] As well as several foreign honours, Campbell was appointed firstly Commander (1901) and then Knight Commander (1910) of the Royal Victorian Order. He died on 17 April 1919.[2]

Likenesses

References

Notes
  1. Sources disagree over the date of his birth: his entry in Who's Who gives the year 1853,[2] and other works cite this year too; but Burke's Peerage give June 1840,[3] a date used by Massue in The Plantagenet Roll and in family histories of the Campbells.[1][4] His own gravestone gives 16 June 1840, and that is used in this article.[5]

Citations
  1. Melville Henry Massue, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, Essex Volume (1911), p. 231.
  2. "Campbell, Captain Sir Walter Douglas Somerset", Who Was Who (online edition), Oxford University Press, April 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  3. Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry..., 4th edition (London: Harrison, 1862), part 1, p. 205.
  4. G. Harvey Johnston, The Heraldry of the Campbells ..., vol. 2 (Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnston Ltd, 1921), p. 20.
  5. "Sir Walter Douglas Somerset Campbell", Find-a-Grave. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  6. James A. Pratt, "Campbell, John Francis, of Islay (1821?–1885)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, online edition May 2006). Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  7. The Edinburgh Gazette, 19 June 1860 (issue 7024), p. 775.
  8. The London Gazette, 3 July 1860 (issue 22400), p. 2496.
  9. The Edinburgh Gazette, 19 January 1864 (issue 7398), p. 66.
  10. The London Gazette, 23 November 1877 (issue 24525), p. 6436.
  11. The London Gazette, 25 May 1880 (issue 24847), p. 3176.
  12. The London Gazette, 27 July 1880 (issue 24867), p. 4137.
  13. The London Gazette, 14 April 1916 (issue 29547), p. 3913.
Other offices
Preceded by
John Francis Campbell		 Groom in Waiting to the British Sovereign
1880–1916		 Succeeded by
Col. Hon. Claude Henry Comaraich Willoughby
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