Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Indian Mutiny Medal awarded to Sir George Campbell, K.C.M.G., late Inspector-General of Ceylon Police, who gave no quarter when disarming mutinous troops in 1857

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (G W R Campbell, Asst.-Supdt. Ahmedabd. Kole Corps) edge bruise, otherwise good very fine £500-£600

‘Corps to which the officer belonged: Ahmedabad Kole Corps (Police).

Rank & Name: George William Robert Campbell, formerly Adjutant & Assistant Superintendent. Now Inspector General of Police in Ceylon.

Nature of services on which employed: Disarming Goozerat Horse. Destroying villages of Oonoria in 1857 & Ahmedabad in suppressing the mutiny of the 2nd Grenadiers & also mutiny of Goozerat Horse.

Detail of troops engaged and name of commanding officer: Wing of H.M. 89th Regiment - Wing of 2nd Bombay Grenadiers - Some Goozerat Horse (I think) - 2 Guns - 400 Ahmedabad Kole Corps (Police). Major Grimes (subsequently Colonel Grimes) of the 2nd Grenadiers commanded.

Remarks: Mr Campbell was besides actively engaged in the suppression of the mutiny in the Goozerat Horse in which 2 men were bayoneted by the police and 5 were brought in to be hanged. And also was out in command of 400 Police to aid in the suppression of the mutiny in the 2nd Grenadiers for which 11 men were hanged, 5 blown away and 3 shot.’ (Indian Mutiny medal roll L/MIL/5/92 refers - this is the only example so far found in a Mutiny medal roll where the actual method of retribution is shown in such graphic detail).

George William Robert Campbell was born in Campbeltown, Argyllshire, in 1835, and at the age of 18 became an Ensign in the Argyll and Bute Rifles. A few months later he was promoted to a lieutenancy but, in June 1856, the regiment was disembodied and in December he went to India, where he secured an appointment as assistant superintendent in the Bombay Revenue Survey. On the outbreak of the Mutiny in the following year he was appointed Adjutant of the Ahmedabad Koli Corps, as well as assistant superintendent of police and assistant magistrate. He went on field service in command of 400 men; and at the suppression of the outbreak was awarded the Mutiny medal and received the thanks of the Government. His discovery of a specific for the bites of Indian snakes, including cobras, earned him the thanks of the Governor-General in Council.

In 1859 he obtained the appointment of superintendent of police and commandant of the Rutnagharry Rangers. In 1864, when stationed at North Canara, during the prevalence of a severe fever epidemic, Mr Campbell devised a simple but effectual method of filtering common tank water, and for this he was thanked by Sir Bartle Frere. In 1866 he was promoted to the command of the police in Upper Scind, but was allowed to decline the appointment. He was, however, transferred the same year to the command of the Belgaum Police Force; but before the year expired he was selected for more responsible and arduous work, being sent to Ceylon to reorganise the police force there. In 1868 he resigned the service of the Indian Government in order to enter permanently that of Ceylon. In the years 1872-73 he acted as Lieutenant-Governor of Penang at a critical time with the Malay States, and it was mainly owing to his representation that a British Residency was established at Laroot. On the return to Penang of Sir Archibald Anson, for whom he had been acting, Mr Campbell went back to Ceylon. From 1884 to 1891 he was Inspector-General of Ceylon Prisons (as well as of the police), and during that time he was offered, but declined, the lieutenant-governorship of Mauritius. He was also a justice of the peace for the colony and a municipal councillor for Colombo. For eight years he had charge of Arabi Pasha and the six other Egyptian exiles who had been condemned to death after Lord Wolseley had overthrown then at Tel-el-Kebir, but whose sentence was commuted to banishment for life to Ceylon. In 1887 he was created C.M.G., and in 1891 K.C.M.G.; and in the same year he retired from the public service. He afterwards associated himself with South African enterprise, and was Chairman of many Rhodesian companies. Sir George Campbell, K.C.M.G., died in London on 10 January 1905.