Three: Captain Patricia J. B. C. Campbell, Women’s Royal Army Corps, late Auxiliary Territorial Service

Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Kenya (Capt. P. J. B. C. Campbell. W.R.A.C.) minor official correction to surname on last, nearly extremely fine (3) £140-£180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Norman Gooding Collection.

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Patricia Jean Betty C. Campbell was born on 29 June 1920, the daughter of the Reverend Edward F. Campbell of The Vicarage, Fleckney, Leicestershire. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service at the outbreak of the Second World War, and was commissioned 2nd Subaltern on 30 May 1941. Advanced Junior Commander on 24 May 1943, she was transferred to the unemployed list on 15 May 1946.

Joining the Women’s Royal Army Corps, she was appointed Lieutenant on 29 September 1952, Captain on 11 January 1953 and Major on 11 January 1960. Initially serving at the W.R.A.C. School of Instruction at Huron Camp, Hindhead, she served from 1954 to 1956 as Staff Captain ‘Q’ Headquarters, East Africa Command, and from 1956 to 1958 as Administrative Officer at Nottingham University Officer Training Corps (W.R.A.C. sub-unit). Sent to Berlin for three years, she then returned to the United Kingdom in 1961 as Officer Commanding 3 Ind. Co. W.R.A.C. School of Artillery at Manorbier in South Wales. She ended her career as Officer Commanding 9 Ind. Co. W.R.A.C. at Larkhill, Wiltshire, taking retirement on 29 June 1964.

Sold with copied research including a fine article by the recipient titled ‘Nairobi to Uganda at 15 miles an hour’, which describes her experiences on a 400 miles train journey through the Rift Valley. Full of insights and anecdotes, it offers a cheerful account of exploration in mid-twentieth century Africa:

‘We puffed along over the dusty plains, passing herds of zebra and wildebeest. We were attentively waited on by an Asian steward, who told us proudly about his nine years in the Ghurkas (sic), mingled with hair-raising stories of encounters with lion and leopard on this particular railway line.’