Walter Frederick Campbell

Walter Frederick Campbell of Shawfield (sometimes given "of Islay") (1798–1855), was a Scottish politician. He served as the MP for Argyllshire, 1822–1832 and 1835–1841.

Early life and political career He was born on 10 April 1798, the son of John Campbell (1770–1809), and his wife Lady Charlotte Susan Maria Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll. His father was the son of Walter Campbell of Shawfield, from whom Walter Frederick inherited the island of Islay. Local features were the relative absence, compared with most of the western Scottish Highlands, of tenants with larger sheep farms, and the incidence of land subdivision associated with kelp production.

Campbell spent heavily, and a debt of £815,000 lay on the estate. During the 1840s Islay was hit by the agricultural depression and the potato blight associated with the Highland Potato Famine. Campbell suffered bankruptcy in 1847.

Campbell in April 1847 was assuring officials that he would create employment so that men would not be idle: but in writing to Edward Pine Coffin, commissary-general, the Deputy-Commissary-General John Saumarez Dobree voiced a worry that Campbell was weakening his own finances. Joseph Mitchell was a guest of the Campbells at the time, and witnessed Campbell's predicament: a greater concern than the blight was that tenants were not paying rents. Banks ceased to lend. Official policy was to use a Drainage Act for job creation, and for many landlords there was considerable benefit: but in the Islay case a successful application for support by Campbell led to his trustees running the employment schemes that kept tenants solvent.

Creditors moved in at the end of 1847, and the family left Islay.

Of the children of the second marriage:

Walter Douglas Somerset Campbell was an army officer and courtier. Augusta Elizabeth married in 1858 William Bromley-Davenport (1821–1884), Member of Parliament.

Legacy Port Ellen, was named in 1821 by Walter Frederick Campbell for his wife, Eleanor, as was Port Wemyss near Portnahaven. Port Charlotte was named in 1828, Walter Frederick Campbell after his mother, Charlotte.