Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Egypt operations’ D.S.O. group of five awarded to Colonel J. D. Campbell, Royal Engineers

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Major); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, mounted as worn, generally good very fine (5) £900-1100

D.S.O. London Gazette 3 June 1918. ‘For distinguished service in connection with military operations in Egypt.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 14 June 1918.

James Donald Campbell, who was born in May 1884 and educated at Cheltenham College, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in December 1901. A Captain by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he did not witness active service until October 1916, when he entered the ‘Greek Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, European Turkey and the Islands of the Aegean’ theatre of war. Advanced to Major that December, when he took up an appointment with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Campbell remained similarly employed until October 1918, with the exception of a posting to Hejaz for a few weeks in late 1917. He was awarded the D.S.O. and mentioned in despatches.

Soon after the Great War, he joined the Survey of India Department as a Deputy Superintendent, gaining advancement to Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1929 and to Superintendent of the Survey in the following year. Then in September 1931, on promotion to full Colonel, he was confirmed as Director of the Survey. In fact, Campbell remained employed in India until May 1939, when he was placed on the Retired List.