CAMPBELL, Charles Bruce

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Fate
  5. Commemoration
  6. Notes
  7. Sources

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

Create Certificate
Memorial window to Charles Campbell, St. John's Church.

Memorial window to Charles Campbell, St. John's Church.

Charles Campbell. Image courtesy of Robert Campbell.

Charles Campbell. Image courtesy of Robert Campbell.

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