Walter Campbell

Lieutenant-General Sir Walter Campbell, (30 July 1864 – 11 August 1936) was a British Army officer who served as Quartermaster-General to the Forces from 1923 to 1927.

Early life and education Campbell was born in County Antrim, Ireland, the son of John Campbell of Rathfern, White Abbey, Belfast. He was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge, but left university after three years for Sandhurst when he decided upon a military career. promoted to lieutenant on 5 December 1890, and saw early service with the Waziristan Field Force and the Chitral Relief Force (1895). He was promoted to captain on 11 January 1897, served in the Tirah Expeditionary Force (1897–98), and received a brevet promotion to major on 20 May 1898. He then became brigade major for the Highland Brigade serving in South Africa, (presumably) in March 1900. The war ended with the Peace of Vereeniging in late May 1902, and the following month Campbell returned home in the SS Tagus, arriving at Southampton in July.

Following his return, he was on 19 October 1902 appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General (DAAG) to the 3rd Army Corps, stationed in Ireland. He was promoted to major in April 1906 and to lieutenant colonel in January 1907, while serving as a deputy assistant director at headquarters. In October 1908 he was appointed as a GSO2 at the War Office.

After having served as a GSO2, Campbell was placed on half-pay in April 1911 and promoted to colonel in July. He was made an assistant quartermaster general in December 1911.

Campbell served in the First World War, receiving a promotion to brigadier general and being assigned as a deputy adjutant and quartermaster general (DAAG), while serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), in October 1914, in succession to Robert Wanless O'Gowan. He was later promoted to temporary major general in July 1915, becoming Deputy Quartermaster-General to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force taking part in the evacuation at Gallipoli. By June 1918 he was Quartermaster-General with the Imperial Camel Corps in Jordan. According to The Times, Campbell's "genius for administration made him an outstanding figure of the War." and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 New Year Honours.

In 1918, Campbell was sketched by artist James McBey, the official war artist to the Palestine Expeditionary Force. Having been appointed major general in command of administration in July 1919, in succession to Major General Reginald Salmond Curtis, he was promoted to lieutenant general in August 1921.l and appointed Quartermaster-General to the Forces in 1923; he retired four years later and died on 11 August 1936.