Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Air Force
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Place of Enlistment
- England
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 29/03/1890
- Place of Birth
- Yarralumla ACT
- Address (at enlistment)
- Cooinbil NSW (previously Yarralumla ACT)
- Occupation
- Station manager
- Next of Kin
- Eldest son of Frederick and Christina Campbell of 'Red Hill', Tumut NSW
- Burial Place
Cambrai East Military Cemetery, France: grave VII.A.46.
Unit and Rank Details
- Final Rank
- 2 Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 49 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
Fate
Died near Cambrai, France on 29 November 1917 aged 27 years
Commemoration
AWM Commemorative Roll, Canberra ACT
Memorial window in St John's Church, Reid ACT
Notes
Born in 1890 at Yarralumla, Charles Campbell was the eldest son of Frederick Campbell (from whom Yarralumla was acquired by the Commonwealth in 1913). After finishing school he managed one of his father's properties near Lightning Ridge and after proving his competency, he became manager of Cooinbil Station. He left Cooinbil for England and enlisted with the Royal Flying Corps. According to another pilot, on 29 November 1917 their squadron had completed their mission over Cambrai in France and were returning home when they were attacked by three times their number. Campbell was flying at the rear of the formation when he was shot down and killed. His mother refused to believe that Campbell had been killed and travelled to Europe after the war to search for her son, but it was in vain. She convinced her husband to set aside a sum of money in case Campbell returned home, but after 15 years it was quietly donated to charity.
Sources
Memorial window in St John's Church, Reid ACT
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register
http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search/
C.D. Coulthard-Clark (ed.), 'Gables, Ghosts and Governors General', 1988
Barbara Hill, 'A Book of Remembrance - In Memory of First World War Servicemen who had an association with the Church of St. John the Baptist Canberra', 2015
Queanbeyan Age - 26 February 1918
Image donated by Robert Campbell